tau
[ˈt̪aw]
The verdict
“tau” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #33,347 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.
- #33,347
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - La letra número 19 del alfabeto griego.
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 | tau |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈt̪aw] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #33,347 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tau” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for tau is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈt̪aw]. Corpus data places it at rank #33,347 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
tau doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tú", "to", "TV", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Spanish form is tau, spelled T-A-U.
Definition
- 1La letra número 19 del alfabeto griego.
- 2Partícula elemental de gran masa. Tiene carga eléctrica negativa, una vida media muy corta, de unos 3cdot 10-13 segundos, y una masa casi del doble de la del protón.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is T-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈt̪aw] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tú” - see the side-by-side comparison. tau vs tú
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish 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.