tenso vs terno, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tenso” and “terno” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,362
“tenso” frequency rank: #11,363
“terno” frequency rank: 22725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tenso	terno
Definition	que está sob tensão; em que há tensão	tenro

Letter map: tenso vs terno

Shared letters muted; letters that set tenso and terno apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch

tenso

5 ch

terno

Pair insight - tenso / terno

tenso and terno are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tenso is recorded at frequency rank #11,362, classified as anadj. terno is at rank #11,363, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɛɾ.nu/.

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 22725, this pair ranks #47,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tenso vs terno

Shared letters: enot. Private to "tenso": s. Private to "terno": r.

"tenso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "terno" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

tenso ← etnso · tennso · tenos · tensso · tesno · tneso · ttenso
terno ← etrno · tenro · ternno · teron · terrno · treno · tterno

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tenso" for "terno" ever safe?

No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tenso" or "terno" show up more?

"tenso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,362 in our Portuguese list, against #11,363 for "terno". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tenso" and "terno".

Full dictionary entry for "tenso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "terno" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #47,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tenso" and "terno" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tengo vs terno". 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 #47,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.