Which to use
“taro” and “tarot” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,374
- “taro” frequency rank
- #24,927
- “tarot” frequency rank
- 56301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | taro | tarot |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm, which distantly resembles potato. | A card game played in various different variations. |
Same sound, different letters: taro vs tarot
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. taro runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tarot's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - taro / tarot
This is the hard kind. taro and tarot are pronounced identically (/ˈtæɹəʊ/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “taro” sits inside “tarot”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
taro is recorded at frequency rank #31,374, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtæɹəʊ/. tarot is at rank #24,927, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtæɹəʊ/.
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 56301, this pair ranks #127,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of taro vs tarot
Shared letters: aort. Private to "taro": -. Private to "tarot": -.
"taro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tarot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "taro" for "tarot" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "taro" or "tarot" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "taro" / "tarot". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "taro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tarot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #127,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "taro" and "tarot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs taro". 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 #127,267 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.