Which to use
“temor” and “tumor” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,349
- “temor” frequency rank
- #9,122
- “tumor” frequency rank
- 21471
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | temor | tumor |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | medo, receio, sensação resultante da ideia de perigo | inchaço |
Where the eye mixes temor and tumor
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. temor and tumor follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses temor with tumor
A purely visual mix-up. temor (\te.'mo*\) and tumor (/tu.ˈmoɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “temor” becomes u in “tumor”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
temor is recorded at frequency rank #12,349, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.'mo*\. tumor is at rank #9,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tu.ˈmoɾ/.
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 21471, this pair ranks #48,775 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of temor vs tumor
Shared letters: mort. Private to "temor": e. Private to "tumor": u.
"temor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tumor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "temor" for "tumor" ever safe?
Frequency check: "temor" vs "tumor" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "temor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tumor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,775 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "temor" and "tumor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tufo vs tumor". 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 #48,775 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.