mancovsmaricoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: manco is a adjective, marico is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,485
“manco” frequency rank
#23,129
“marico” frequency rank
46614
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manco marico
Definition Que le falta un brazo o una mano, o que no puede usar alguno de estos miembros. Varón que siente atracción sexual por personas de su mismo sexo biológico.

Where the eye mixes manco and marico

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. manco runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against marico's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
manco
6 ch
marico

Look-alike desk: manco vs marico

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manco is [ˈmãŋko] while marico is [maˈɾiko]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manco is recorded at frequency rank #23,485, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmãŋko]. marico is at rank #23,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maˈɾiko].

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 46614, this pair ranks #124,727 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manco vs marico

Shared letters: acmo. Private to "manco": n. Private to "marico": ir.

"manco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "marico" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mancoamnco · macno · mancco · mannco · manoc · mmanco · mnaco
  • maricoamrico · mairco · marcio · maricco · marioc · marrico · mmarico · mraico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manco" and "marico" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manco" is an adjective and "marico" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "manco" or "marico"?
"marico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,129 in our Spanish list, against #23,485 for "manco". 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 "manco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,727 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manco" and "marico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magro vs manco". 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 #124,727 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