tivovstypoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tivo is a verb, typo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tivo” is a verb and “typo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,222
“tivo” frequency rank
#19,726
“typo” frequency rank
65948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tivo typo
Definition To digitally record (a television show). A typographical error.

Letter map: tivo vs typo

Shared letters muted; letters that set tivo and typo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. tivo and typo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
tivo
4 ch
typo

Grammar separator: tivo vs typo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tivo is averb and typoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tivo is recorded at frequency rank #46,222, classified as averb. typo is at rank #19,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtaɪpəʊ/.

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 65948, this pair ranks #70,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tivo vs typo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tivo": iv. Private to "typo": py.

"tivo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "typo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tivo ← itvo · tiov · tivvo · ttivo · tvio
  • typo ← tpyo · ttypo · tyop · typpo · tyypo · ytpo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tivo" and "typo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tivo" is a verb and "typo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "tivo" or "typo" show up more?
"typo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,726 in our English list, against #46,222 for "tivo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "tivo" vs "typo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tivo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "typo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tivo" and "typo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tik vs tivo". 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 #70,306 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list