televstildeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,203
“tele” frequency rank
#24,332
“tilde” frequency rank
28535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tele tilde
Definition Apócope de televisión. El acento agudo; marca gráfica ´ que se usa, en castellano, para indicar la sílaba en donde recae el acento prosódico cuando las reglas ortográficas prescriben que es necesario hacerlo o que, de lo contrario, caería en otra sílaba.

Where the eye mixes tele and tilde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tele
5 ch
tilde

Why the eye confuses tele with tilde

A purely visual mix-up. tele ([ˈt̪ele]) and tilde ([ˈt̪il̪d̪e]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tele is recorded at frequency rank #4,203, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪ele]. tilde is at rank #24,332, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪il̪d̪e].

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 28535, this pair ranks #221,544 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tele vs tilde

Shared letters: elt. Private to "tele": -. Private to "tilde": di.

"tele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tilde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teleetle · teel · telle · tlee · ttele
  • tildeitlde · tidle · tildde · tiled · tillde · tlide · ttilde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tele" for "tilde" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪ele] versus [ˈt̪il̪d̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tele" vs "tilde" - which ranks higher?
"tele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,203 in our Spanish list, against #24,332 for "tilde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tilde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,544 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tele" and "tilde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tale vs tilde". 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 #221,544 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