tecovstensoConfusable pair

Quick tell: teco is a noun, tenso is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#43,185
“teco” frequency rank
#11,362
“tenso” frequency rank
54547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teco tenso
Definition tiro de arma de fogo que está sob tensão; em que há tensão

Letter map: teco vs tenso

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

4 ch
teco
5 ch
tenso

Role in the sentence - teco and tenso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: teco is anoun and tensoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teco is recorded at frequency rank #43,185, classified as anoun. tenso is at rank #11,362, tagged as anadj.

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 54547, this pair ranks #11,188 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of teco vs tenso

Shared letters: eot. Private to "teco": c. Private to "tenso": ns.

"teco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tenso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teco ← etco · tceo · tecco · teoc · tteco
  • tenso ← etnso · tennso · tenos · tensso · tesno · tneso · ttenso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "teco" and "tenso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "teco" is a noun and "tenso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "teco" or "tenso"?
"tenso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,362 in our Portuguese list, against #43,185 for "teco". 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 "teco" and "tenso".

  • Full dictionary entry for "teco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tenso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,188 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "teco" and "tenso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teco 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 #11,188 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