facesvsfocosConfusable pair

Which to use

“faces” and “focos” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,402
“faces” frequency rank
#13,914
“focos” frequency rank
62316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faces focos
Definition Forma del plural de faz. Forma del plural de foco.

Where the eye mixes faces and focos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faces and focos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
faces
5 ch
focos

Why the eye confuses faces with focos

A purely visual mix-up. faces ([ˈfases]) and focos ([ˈfokos]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faces is recorded at frequency rank #48,402, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfases]. focos is at rank #13,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfokos].

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 62316, this pair ranks #52,454 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faces vs focos

Shared letters: cfs. Private to "faces": ae. Private to "focos": o.

"faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "focos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faces ← afces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces
  • focos ← fcoos · ffocos · foccos · focoss · focso · foocs · ofcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faces" for "focos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfases] versus [ˈfokos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "faces" vs "focos" - which ranks higher?
"focos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,914 in our Spanish list, against #48,402 for "faces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "focos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,454 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faces" and "focos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faces vs facho". 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 #52,454 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