tangovstensoTell them apart

Quick tell: tango is a noun, tenso is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tango” is a noun and “tenso” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,623
“tango” frequency rank
#11,362
“tenso” frequency rank
24985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tango tenso
Definition estilo musical e dança a par; tem forma musical binária e compasso de dois por quatro; sua coreografia é complexa que está sob tensão; em que há tensão

Letter map: tango vs tenso

Shared letters muted; letters that set tango and tenso apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tango
5 ch
tenso

Part-of-speech tell for tango / tenso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tango is anoun and tensoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tango is recorded at frequency rank #13,623, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɐ̃.ɡu/. tenso is at rank #11,362, tagged as anadj.

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 24985, this pair ranks #44,441 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tango vs tenso

Shared letters: not. Private to "tango": ag. Private to "tenso": es.

"tango" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tenso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tangoatngo · tagno · tanggo · tanngo · tanog · tnago · ttango
  • tensoetnso · tennso · tenos · tensso · tesno · tneso · ttenso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tango" and "tenso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tango" is a noun and "tenso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tango" or "tenso" show up more?
"tenso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,362 in our Portuguese list, against #13,623 for "tango". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "tango" vs "tenso" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tango" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tenso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,441 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tango" and "tenso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tango vs tengo". 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 #44,441 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