tercosvstrucosWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,727
“tercos” frequency rank
#7,238
“trucos” frequency rank
55965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tercos trucos
Definition Forma del plural de terco. Forma del plural de truco.

Where the eye mixes tercos and trucos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tercos
6 ch
trucos

Look-alike desk: tercos vs trucos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tercos is [ˈt̪eɾkos] while trucos is [ˈt̪ɾukos]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55965, 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]. trucos is at rank #7,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪ɾukos].

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 55965, this pair ranks #76,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tercos vs trucos

Shared letters: corst. Private to "tercos": e. Private to "trucos": u.

"tercos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "trucos" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tercosetrcos · tecros · terccos · tercoss · tercso · terocs · terrcos · trecos
  • trucosrtucos · trcuos · trrucos · truccos · trucoss · trucso · truocs · ttrucos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tercos" and "trucos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tercos" is an adjective and "trucos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tercos" or "trucos" show up more?
"trucos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,238 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tercos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "trucos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #76,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tercos" and "trucos" 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 #76,592 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