tell
The verdict
“tell” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #9,770) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #9,770
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 917
- “T” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - contar, narrar
Corpus desk
Index PT-tell · tell · Portuguese
tell · rank #9,770 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,770
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 917
- PHOTO-FINISH semente
Nearest frequency peer: semente (-7 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “tell”
Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo
- resistente
resistente
90,243 corpus weight
- satisfazer
satisfazer
90,240 corpus weight
- semente
semente
90,238 corpus weight
- tell
tell
90,231 corpus weight
- veterano
veterano
90,224 corpus weight
- water
water
90,220 corpus weight
What this shows As barras situam “tell” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.
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 | tell |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,770 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “tell”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for tell is neighbouring look-alikes ("tem", "ter", …), not just typos; it is averb. Frequency #9,770 among 917 “T” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for tell, with forms such as "etll", "tel", and "tlel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tem", "ter", "teu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is tell, spelled T-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1contar, narrar
- 2dizer
- 3discernir, distinguir, identificar
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tell appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A tropical fish can tell one human face from another despite lacking a brain section that homo sapiens and other “smart” animals use for this task, scientists said on Tuesday.
Synonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- etll
- tel
- tlel
- ttell
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tell - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "tell"?
What does "tell" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "tell"?
What language does "tell" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tell", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).