tolo

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“tolo” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #17,929) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#17,929
frequency rank, Portuguese
917
“T” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sem inteligência ou sem juízo

Corpus desk

Index PT-tolo · tolo · Portuguese

tolo · rank #17,929 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,929
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 917
  • PHOTO-FINISH topografia

Nearest frequency peer: topografia (+1 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 “tolo”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “tolo” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

tolo vs tom
50% similar
tolo vs two
50% similar
tolo vs Tor
25% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for tolo
PropertyValue
Headwordtolo
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechAdjective
Letters4
Frequency rank#17,929
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “tolo”

Esta escala corre do núcleo do português quotidiano (esquerda) até o rastro de formas raras (direita).tolocai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Os ticks avançam em logaritmo; cada um é da ordem de dez vezes mais raro. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “topografia” (#17,930), “torturar” (#17,931), “tinhas” (#17,926). Entre 917 lemas com “T”, “tolo” fica em #17,929. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for tolo is neighbouring look-alikes ("tom", "two", …), not just typos; it is anadjective. Frequency #17,929 among 917 “T” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for tolo, with forms such as "otlo", "tloo", and "tollo". 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, "tom", "two", "Tor", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Portuguese form is tolo, spelled T-O-L-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    sem inteligência ou sem juízo
  2. 2
    ingênuo, simplório
  3. 3
    tonto, idiota, pateta, bobo

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how tolo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Assim, de nada valeriam campanhas e discursos, pois o consumidor não é tolo e sabe que não está em primeiro lugar.

Synonyms

zuzutobiléabestadoabestalhado

This word in other languages

fool(English)dumm(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • otlo
  • tloo
  • tollo
  • ttolo

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tolo - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

otlo2tloo2tollo1ttolo1
Edit distance from "tolo"

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 "tolo"?
"tolo" is spelled T-O-L-O.
What does "tolo" mean?
As an adjective, "tolo" means: sem inteligência ou sem juízo
What words are commonly confused with "tolo"?
"tolo" is commonly confused with "tom", "two", "Tor". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "tolo" come from?
"tolo" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tolo", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

SIDA#17,916pero#17,884lead#17,835edge#18,040

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list