siglovssignWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#618
“siglo” frequency rank
#36,292
“sign” frequency rank
36910
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature siglo sign
Definition Período de cien años. Señal.

Where the eye mixes siglo and sign

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. siglo runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against sign's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
siglo
4 ch
sign

Why the eye confuses siglo with sign

A purely visual mix-up. siglo ([ˈsiɣ̞lo]) and sign (/saɪn/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

siglo is recorded at frequency rank #618, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsiɣ̞lo]. sign is at rank #36,292, tagged as anoun, pronounced /saɪn/.

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 36910, this pair ranks #178,131 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of siglo vs sign

Shared letters: gis. Private to "siglo": lo. Private to "sign": n.

"siglo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "sign" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • siglo ← ciglo · isglo · sgilo · sigglo · sigllo · sigol · silgo · ssiglo
  • sign ← cign · isgn · sgin · siggn · signn · ssign

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "siglo" and "sign" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsiɣ̞lo] versus /saɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "siglo" or "sign"?
"siglo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #618 in our Spanish list, against #36,292 for "sign". 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 "siglo" and "sign" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "siglo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sign" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,131 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "siglo" and "sign" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sign vs sila". 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 #178,131 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