surcovssurcosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,664
“surco” frequency rank
#31,999
“surcos” frequency rank
56663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature surco surcos
Definition Franja de tierra hendida por el arado. Forma del plural de surco.

Where the eye mixes surco and surcos

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

5 ch
surco
6 ch
surcos

Look-alike desk: surco vs surcos

A purely visual mix-up. surco ([ˈsuɾko]) and surcos ([ˈsuɾkos]) 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 extra letter(s) - “surco” sits inside “surcos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

surco is recorded at frequency rank #24,664, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsuɾko]. surcos is at rank #31,999, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsuɾkos].

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 56663, this pair ranks #73,653 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of surco vs surcos

Shared letters: corsu. Private to "surco": -. Private to "surcos": -.

"surco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "surcos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • surco ← sruco · ssurco · sucro · surcco · suroc · surrco · usrco
  • surcos ← srucos · ssurcos · sucros · surccos · surcoss · surcso · surocs · surrcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "surco" for "surcos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsuɾko] versus [ˈsuɾkos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "surco" or "surcos" show up more?
"surco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,664 in our Spanish list, against #31,999 for "surcos". 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 "surco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surcos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,653 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "surco" and "surcos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suecas vs surcos". 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 #73,653 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