tardavsturbaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,201
“tarda” frequency rank
#43,205
“turba” frequency rank
61406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tarda turba
Definition tarde grande massa de gente

Letter map: tarda vs turba

Shared letters muted; letters that set tarda and turba apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tarda
5 ch
turba

Pair insight - tarda / turba

tarda and turba are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tarda is recorded at frequency rank #18,201, classified as anoun. turba is at rank #43,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtuɾ.bɐ/.

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 61406, this pair ranks #7,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tarda vs turba

Shared letters: art. Private to "tarda": d. Private to "turba": bu.

"tarda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "turba" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tardaatrda · tadra · tarad · tardda · tarrda · trada · ttarda
  • turbatruba · tturba · tubra · turab · turbba · turrba · utrba

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tarda" for "turba" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tarda" or "turba" show up more?
"tarda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,201 in our Portuguese list, against #43,205 for "turba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tarda" and "turba".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tarda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tarda" and "turba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tuna vs turba". 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 #7,152 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