vacíovsvascoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,753
“vacío” frequency rank
#4,958
“vasco” frequency rank
7711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacío vasco
Definition Que físicamente no contiene nada. Originario, relativo a, o propio del País Vasco, en cualquiera de las definiciones que se den a este.

Where the eye mixes vacío and vasco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
vacío
5 ch
vasco

Why the eye confuses vacío with vasco

A purely visual mix-up. vacío ([baˈsio]) and vasco ([ˈbasko]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vacío is recorded at frequency rank #2,753, classified as anadj, pronounced [baˈsio]. vasco is at rank #4,958, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbasko].

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 7711, this pair ranks #307,160 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vacío vs vasco

Shared letters: acov. Private to "vacío": í. Private to "vasco": s.

"vacío" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "vasco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vascoavsco · basco · vacso · vascco · vasoc · vassco · vsaco · vvasco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vacío" for "vasco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([baˈsio] versus [ˈbasko]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "vacío" or "vasco" show up more?
"vacío" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,753 in our Spanish list, against #4,958 for "vasco". 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 "vacío" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vasco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,160 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vacío" and "vasco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacila vs vacío". 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 #307,160 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