tonteo
Spanish, noun
tonteo is spelled T-O-N-T-E-O (6 letters) and appears about once in every 23 million words in written Spanish, the 174,457th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tonteo is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “first step; flirtation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present indicative of tontear. With an accent, tonteó is a different word: “third-person singular preterite indicative of tontear”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Acción o efecto de tontear₁₋₂”.
What does tonteo mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinefirst step; flirtation
verb
- 1
first-person singular present indicative of tontear
verb
- 1
third-person singular preterite indicative of tontear
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Acción o efecto de tontear₁₋₂.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tonteo
- tonteos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is tonteo in Spanish?
tonteo appears about once in every 23 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).