terãovstétanoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#2,294
“terão” frequency rank
#44,631
“tétano” frequency rank
46925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terão tétano
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do futuro do indicativo do verbo ter doença infecciosa grave que frequentemente pode levar à morte; é causada pela neurotoxina tetanospasmina que é produzida pela bactéria anaeróbica Clostridium tetani

Letter map: terão vs tétano

Shared letters muted; letters that set terão and tétano apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. terão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against tétano's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
terão
6 ch
tétano

Part-of-speech tell for terão / tétano

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: terão is averb and tétanoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terão is recorded at frequency rank #2,294, classified as averb. tétano is at rank #44,631, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɛ.tɐ.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 46925, this pair ranks #18,381 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of terão vs tétano

Shared letters: ot. Private to "terão": erã. Private to "tétano": ané.

"terão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "tétano" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terão" for "tétano" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terão" is a verb and "tétano" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "terão" vs "tétano" - which ranks higher?
"terão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,294 in our Portuguese list, against #44,631 for "tétano". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "terão" vs "tétano" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tétano" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,381 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terão" and "tétano" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teta vs tétano". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,381 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