tapevstaxaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,801
“tape” frequency rank
#1,590
“taxa” frequency rank
26391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tape taxa
Definition toque suave pagamento individualizado feito por pessoa física ou jurídica pelo uso de algum serviço público

Where the eye mixes tape and taxa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tape
4 ch
taxa

Look-alike desk: tape vs taxa

A purely visual mix-up. tape (/tap/) and taxa (/ˈta.ʃɐ/) 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 26391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tape is recorded at frequency rank #24,801, classified as anoun, pronounced /tap/. taxa is at rank #1,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈta.ʃɐ/.

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 26391, this pair ranks #42,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tape vs taxa

Shared letters: at. Private to "tape": ep. Private to "taxa": x.

"tape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "taxa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tapeatpe · taep · tappe · tpae · ttape
  • taxaatxa · taax · taxxa · ttaxa · txaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tape" for "taxa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/tap/ versus /ˈta.ʃɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tape" or "taxa" show up more?
"taxa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,590 in our Portuguese list, against #24,801 for "tape". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "taxa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tape" and "taxa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tampo vs tape". 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 #42,770 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