tapadovstocadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,353
“tapado” frequency rank
#11,756
“tocado” frequency rank
52109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tapado tocado
Definition tampado; que está coberto apalpado, atingido

Where the eye mixes tapado and tocado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tapado and tocado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
tapado
6 ch
tocado

Look-alike desk: tapado vs tocado

A purely visual mix-up. tapado (/tɐ.ˈpa.du/) and tocado (/tu.ˈka.du/) 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 52109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tapado is recorded at frequency rank #40,353, classified as anadj, pronounced /tɐ.ˈpa.du/. tocado is at rank #11,756, tagged as anadj, pronounced /tu.ˈka.du/.

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 52109, this pair ranks #13,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tapado vs tocado

Shared letters: adot. Private to "tapado": p. Private to "tocado": c.

"tapado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "tocado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tapado ← atpado · taapdo · tapaddo · tapaod · tapdao · tappado · tpaado · ttapado
  • tocado ← otcado · tcoado · toacdo · tocaddo · tocaod · toccado · tocdao · ttocado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tapado" and "tocado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/tɐ.ˈpa.du/ versus /tu.ˈka.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tapado" vs "tocado" - which ranks higher?
"tocado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,756 in our Portuguese list, against #40,353 for "tapado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tapado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tocado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tapado" and "tocado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talão vs tapado". 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 #13,026 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