éxitovsextintoTell them apart

Quick tell: éxito is a noun, extinto is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éxito” is a noun and “extinto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#731
“éxito” frequency rank
#33,603
“extinto” frequency rank
34334
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éxito extinto
Definition Logro o compensación satisfactoria de una tarea o actividad. Qué dejó de existir.

Where the eye mixes éxito and extinto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
éxito
7 ch
extinto

Why the eye confuses éxito with extinto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: éxito is [ˈeksit̪o] while extinto is [eksˈt̪ĩn̪t̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éxito is recorded at frequency rank #731, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈeksit̪o]. extinto is at rank #33,603, tagged as anadj, pronounced [eksˈt̪ĩn̪t̪o].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 34334, this pair ranks #192,022 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of éxito vs extinto

Shared letters: iotx. Private to "éxito": é. Private to "extinto": en.

"éxito" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "extinto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • extintoetxinto · exitnto · extinnto · extinot · extintto · extitno · extnito · exttinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "éxito" for "extinto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éxito" is a noun and "extinto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "éxito" vs "extinto" - which ranks higher?
"éxito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #731 in our Spanish list, against #33,603 for "extinto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "éxito" and "extinto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éxito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "extinto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,022 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éxito" and "extinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "extinto vs extintor". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #192,022 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list