temevstoméTell them apart

Quick tell: teme is a noun, tomé is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,093
“teme” frequency rank
#4,602
“tomé” frequency rank
14695
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teme tomé
Definition anta; tapir, Tapirus terrestris primeira pessoa do singular no pretérito do indicativo do verbo tomar; tomei

Letter map: teme vs tomé

Shared letters muted; letters that set teme and tomé apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
teme
4 ch
tomé

Role in the sentence - teme and tomé

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: teme is anoun and toméaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14695, 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/. tomé is at rank #4,602, tagged as averb.

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 14695, this pair ranks #57,305 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of teme vs tomé

Shared letters: mt. Private to "teme": e. Private to "tomé": .

"teme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tomé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • temeetme · temme · tmee · tteme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "teme" and "tomé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "teme" is a noun and "tomé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "teme" vs "tomé" - which ranks higher?
"tomé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,602 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

Pair "teme" vs "tomé" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "teme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tomé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,305 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "teme" and "tomé" 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 #57,305 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