teclado vs tocado, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#5,470
“teclado” frequency rank: #11,756
“tocado” frequency rank: 17226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	teclado	tocado
Definition	parte de instrumento musical composta por várias teclas	apalpado, atingido

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set teclado and tocado apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

teclado

6 ch

tocado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: teclado is /tɛ.ˈkla.du/ while tocado is /tu.ˈka.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teclado is recorded at frequency rank #5,470, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɛ.ˈkla.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 17226, this pair ranks #54,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of teclado vs tocado

Shared letters: acdot. Private to "teclado": el. Private to "tocado": -.

"teclado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "tocado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

teclado ← etclado · tcelado · tecaldo · tecclado · tecladdo · teclaod · tecldao · tecllado
tocado ← otcado · tcoado · toacdo · tocaddo · tocaod · toccado · tocdao · ttocado

Frequency comparison

teclado#5,470

tocado#11,756

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teclado" and "tocado" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "teclado" is a noun and "tocado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "teclado" or "tocado"?

"teclado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,470 in our Portuguese list, against #11,756 for "tocado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering teclado vs tocado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “teclado”; for an adjective, it's “tocado”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “teclado” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable