taro
/ˈtæɹəʊ/
"taro" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“taro” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #31,374 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #31,374
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm, which distantly resembles potato.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | taro |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtæɹəʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #31,374 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “taro” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for taro is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtæɹəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #31,374 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for taro, with forms such as "atro", "taor", and "tarro". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "to", "two", "too", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Māori taro. Doublet of kalo, from Hawaiian. The correct English form is taro, spelled T-A-R-O.
Definition
- 1Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm, which distantly resembles potato.
- 2Any of several other species with similar corms and growth habit in Colocasia, Alocasia etc.
- 3Food from a taro plant.
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori taro. Doublet of kalo, from Hawaiian.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atro,taor,tarro,trao,ttaro
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of taro - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “taro”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-R-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæɹəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “to” - see the side-by-side comparison. taro vs to
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.