voladovsvolcóWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: volado is a adjective, volcó is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“volado” is an adjective and “volcó” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,696
“volado” frequency rank
#27,820
“volcó” frequency rank
52516
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volado volcó
Definition Se dice de la persona que no está en plena posesión de sus facultades por encontrarse bajo los efectos de una droga. Habitualmente se refiere a alucinógenos como la marihuana. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de volcar.

Where the eye mixes volado and volcó

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. volado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against volcó's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
volado
5 ch
volcó

Visual trap between volado and volcó

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volado is [boˈlað̞o] while volcó is [bolˈko]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volado is recorded at frequency rank #24,696, classified as anadj, pronounced [boˈlað̞o]. volcó is at rank #27,820, tagged as averb, pronounced [bolˈko].

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 52516, this pair ranks #92,316 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volado vs volcó

Shared letters: lov. Private to "volado": ad. Private to "volcó": có.

"volado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "volcó" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volado ← bolado · ovlado · vloado · voaldo · voladdo · volaod · voldao · vollado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "volado" for "volcó" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "volado" is an adjective and "volcó" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "volado" or "volcó" show up more?
"volado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,696 in our Spanish list, against #27,820 for "volcó". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "volado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "volcó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,316 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volado" and "volcó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velado vs volado". 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 #92,316 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