tamosvstimónConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#49,972
“tamos” frequency rank
#18,701
“timón” frequency rank
68673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tamos timón
Definition Forma del plural de tamo. Máquina compuesta de varias piezas de madera formando un conjunto aplanado, que se coloca verticalmente en el codaste de las embarcaciones, asegurándola por medio de machos de bronce o hierro que encajan en otras tantas hembras que hay en él. Sirve el timón manejado, por la caña que se hace firme a su extremo superior o cabeza, para dar a la nave siempre que camina o está aproada a una corriente, todos los movimientos giratorios que son necesarios. En los buques de hierro se compone el timón de planchas del mismo material; y en las embarcaciones menores se reduce a una tabla; en muchas de estas suelen estar los machos clavados en el codaste.

Where the eye mixes tamos and timón

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tamos and timón follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
tamos
5 ch
timón

Visual trap between tamos and timón

A purely visual mix-up. tamos ([ˈt̪amos]) and timón ([t̪iˈmõn]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tamos is recorded at frequency rank #49,972, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪amos]. timón is at rank #18,701, tagged as anoun, pronounced [t̪iˈmõn].

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 68673, this pair ranks #33,879 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tamos vs timón

Shared letters: mt. Private to "tamos": aos. Private to "timón": inó.

"tamos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "timón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tamos ← atmos · tammos · tamoss · tamso · taoms · tmaos · ttamos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tamos" for "timón" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪amos] versus [t̪iˈmõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tamos" or "timón" show up more?
"timón" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,701 in our Spanish list, against #49,972 for "tamos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tamos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "timón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,879 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tamos" and "timón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tamos vs tapo". 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 #33,879 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