patosvspicosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,666
“patos” frequency rank
#12,024
“picos” frequency rank
28690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patos picos
Definition Forma del plural de pato. Forma del plural de pico.

Where the eye mixes patos and picos

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

5 ch
patos
5 ch
picos

Look-alike desk: patos vs picos

A purely visual mix-up. patos ([ˈpat̪os]) and picos ([ˈpikos]) 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 28690, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patos is recorded at frequency rank #16,666, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpat̪os]. picos is at rank #12,024, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpikos].

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 28690, this pair ranks #220,761 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of patos vs picos

Shared letters: ops. Private to "patos": at. Private to "picos": ci.

"patos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "picos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patospaots · patoss · pattos · ppatos · ptaos
  • picosipcos · pcios · piccos · picoss · picso · piocs · ppicos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "patos" and "picos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpat̪os] versus [ˈpikos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "patos" vs "picos" - which ranks higher?
"picos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,024 in our Spanish list, against #16,666 for "patos". 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 "patos" and "picos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "patos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "picos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,761 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patos" and "picos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patos vs potes". 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 #220,761 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