Which to use
“tempo” and “tesão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #84
- “tempo” frequency rank
- #7,225
- “tesão” frequency rank
- 7309
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tempo | tesão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | continuum linear não-espacial no qual os eventos se sucedem irreversivelmente | rijeza |
Where the eye mixes tempo and tesão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between tempo and tesão
A purely visual mix-up. tempo (/ˈtẽm.pʊ/) and tesão (/tɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tempo is recorded at frequency rank #84, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtẽm.pʊ/. tesão is at rank #7,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/.
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 7309, this pair ranks #66,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tempo vs tesão
Shared letters: eot. Private to "tempo": mp. Private to "tesão": sã.
"tempo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tesão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tempo ← etmpo · temmpo · temop · temppo · tepmo · tmepo · ttempo
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tempo" and "tesão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tempo" or "tesão" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tempo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tesão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tempo" and "tesão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tesão vs tosa". 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 #66,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.