tatovstraçoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tato is a adjective, traço is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,471
“tato” frequency rank
#11,759
“traço” frequency rank
36230
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tato traço
Definition gago uma marca, sinal, ou evidência da existência, influência ou ação de algum agente ou evento; vestígio

Letter map: tato vs traço

Shared letters muted; letters that set tato and traço apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tato runs 4 letters (CVCV) against traço's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
tato
5 ch
traço

Grammar separator: tato vs traço

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tato is anadjective and traçoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tato is recorded at frequency rank #24,471, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈta.tu/. traço is at rank #11,759, tagged as anoun.

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 36230, this pair ranks #30,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tato vs traço

Shared letters: aot. Private to "tato": -. Private to "traço": rç.

"tato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "traço" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tato ← atto · taot · tatto · ttao · ttato

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tato" and "traço" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tato" is an adjective and "traço" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tato" or "traço" show up more?
"traço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,759 in our Portuguese list, against #24,471 for "tato". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "tato" vs "traço" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tato" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "traço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tato" and "traço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tato 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 #30,638 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