ríovsriscoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#698
“río” frequency rank
#34,761
“risco” frequency rank
35459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature río risco
Definition Corriente de agua de caudal importante que discurre por tierra desde un manantial, una masa de hielos o un lago. Hendidura.

Where the eye mixes río and risco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
río
5 ch
risco

Visual trap between río and risco

A purely visual mix-up. río ([ˈrio]) and risco ([ˈrisko]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

río is recorded at frequency rank #698, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈrio]. risco is at rank #34,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈrisko].

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 35459, this pair ranks #185,975 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of río vs risco

Shared letters: or. Private to "río": í. Private to "risco": cis.

"río" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "risco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riscoirsco · riscco · risoc · rissco · rrisco · rsico

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "río" for "risco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈrio] versus [ˈrisko]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "río" or "risco"?
"río" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #698 in our Spanish list, against #34,761 for "risco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "río" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #185,975 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "río" and "risco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ricci vs risco". 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 #185,975 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