talovstomoConfusable pair

Which to use

“talo” and “tomo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,788
“talo” frequency rank
#6,352
“tomo” frequency rank
39140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talo tomo
Definition caule de planta volume de obra impressa ou manuscrita

Where the eye mixes talo and tomo

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

4 ch
talo
4 ch
tomo

Look-alike desk: talo vs tomo

A purely visual mix-up. talo (/ˈta.lu/) and tomo (/ˈto.mu/) 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 39140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talo is recorded at frequency rank #32,788, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈta.lu/. tomo is at rank #6,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈto.mu/.

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 39140, this pair ranks #27,188 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of talo vs tomo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "talo": al. Private to "tomo": m.

"talo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tomo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talo ← tallo · taol · tlao · ttalo
  • tomo ← otmo · tmoo · tommo · toom · ttomo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "talo" for "tomo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈta.lu/ versus /ˈto.mu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "talo" or "tomo"?
"tomo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,352 in our Portuguese list, against #32,788 for "talo". 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 "talo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tomo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,188 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talo" and "tomo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talo vs tufo". 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 #27,188 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list