tercosvstirosTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,727
“tercos” frequency rank
#5,264
“tiros” frequency rank
53991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tercos tiros
Definition Forma del plural de terco. Forma del plural de tiro.

Where the eye mixes tercos and tiros

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

6 ch
tercos
5 ch
tiros

Visual trap between tercos and tiros

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tercos is [ˈt̪eɾkos] while tiros is [ˈt̪iɾos]. 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 53991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tercos is recorded at frequency rank #48,727, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt̪eɾkos]. tiros is at rank #5,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪iɾos].

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 53991, this pair ranks #85,303 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tercos vs tiros

Shared letters: orst. Private to "tercos": ce. Private to "tiros": i.

"tercos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tiros" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tercos ← etrcos · tecros · terccos · tercoss · tercso · terocs · terrcos · trecos
  • tiros ← itros · tiors · tiross · tirros · trios · ttiros

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tercos" and "tiros" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tercos" is an adjective and "tiros" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tercos" or "tiros" show up more?
"tiros" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,264 in our Spanish list, against #48,727 for "tercos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tercos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,303 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tercos" and "tiros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tercos vs termos". 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 #85,303 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