temevstesteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,093
“teme” frequency rank
#1,412
“teste” frequency rank
11505
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teme teste
Definition anta; tapir, Tapirus terrestris que é feito em caráter preliminar, para testar ou servir como protótipo

Letter map: teme vs teste

Shared letters muted; letters that set teme and teste apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
teme
5 ch
teste

Part-of-speech tell for teme / teste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: teme is anoun and testeanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11505, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teme is recorded at frequency rank #10,093, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɛ.mɛ/. teste is at rank #1,412, 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 11505, this pair ranks #61,320 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of teme vs teste

Shared letters: et. Private to "teme": m. Private to "teste": s.

"teme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "teste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • temeetme · temme · tmee · tteme
  • testeetste · teset · tesste · testte · tetse · tsete · tteste

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teme" and "teste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "teme" is a noun and "teste" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "teme" vs "teste" - which ranks higher?
"teste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,412 in our Portuguese list, against #10,093 for "teme". 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 "teme" and "teste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "teme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,320 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "teme" and "teste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teme vs trema". 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 #61,320 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