filosvsfocosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,806
“filos” frequency rank
#13,914
“focos” frequency rank
61720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filos focos
Definition Forma del plural de filo. Forma del plural de foco.

Where the eye mixes filos and focos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. filos 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
filos
5 ch
focos

Visual trap between filos and focos

A purely visual mix-up. filos ([ˈfilos]) 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 61720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filos is recorded at frequency rank #47,806, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfilos]. 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 61720, this pair ranks #54,459 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of filos vs focos

Shared letters: fos. Private to "filos": il. Private to "focos": c.

"filos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "focos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filos ← ffilos · fillos · filoss · filso · fiols · flios · iflos
  • focos ← fcoos · ffocos · foccos · focoss · focso · foocs · ofcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "filos" and "focos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfilos] versus [ˈfokos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "filos" 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 #47,806 for "filos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "filos" 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 #54,459 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filos" and "focos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "falo vs filos". 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 #54,459 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