talónvstifónWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“talón” and “tifón” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,174
“talón” frequency rank
#28,182
“tifón” frequency rank
49356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talón tifón
Definition Parte posterior del pie con la que se pisa. Nombre que recibe un ciclón tropical producido en el mar de la China. Los tifones aparecen normalmente en verano y/o en otoño. Van acompañados de lluvias y vientos violentos con ráfagas de más que 33m/s.

Where the eye mixes talón and tifón

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. talón and tifón follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
talón
5 ch
tifón

Look-alike desk: talón vs tifón

A purely visual mix-up. talón ([t̪aˈlõn]) and tifón ([t̪iˈfõn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talón is recorded at frequency rank #21,174, classified as anoun, pronounced [t̪aˈlõn]. tifón is at rank #28,182, tagged as anoun, pronounced [t̪iˈfõn].

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 49356, this pair ranks #109,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of talón vs tifón

Shared letters: ntó. Private to "talón": al. Private to "tifón": fi.

"talón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tifón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "talón" and "tifón" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([t̪aˈlõn] versus [t̪iˈfõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "talón" or "tifón" show up more?
"talón" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,174 in our Spanish list, against #28,182 for "tifón". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "talón" and "tifón" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "talón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tifón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talón" and "tifón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tesón vs tifón". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #109,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list