throwvstiroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,187
“throw” frequency rank
#1,480
“tiro” frequency rank
44667
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature throw tiro
Definition lançamento ato de disparar uma arma de fogo

Where the eye mixes throw and tiro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. throw runs 5 letters (CCCVC) against tiro's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
throw
4 ch
tiro

Visual trap between throw and tiro

A purely visual mix-up. throw (/θɻoʊ/) and tiro (/ˈti.ɾu/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

throw is recorded at frequency rank #43,187, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɻoʊ/. tiro is at rank #1,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈti.ɾu/.

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 44667, this pair ranks #20,773 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of throw vs tiro

Shared letters: ort. Private to "throw": hw. Private to "tiro": i.

"throw" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "tiro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • throw ← htrow · thhrow · thorw · throww · thrrow · thrwo · trhow · tthrow
  • tiro ← itro · tior · tirro · trio · ttiro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "throw" for "tiro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/θɻoʊ/ versus /ˈti.ɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "throw" or "tiro" show up more?
"tiro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,480 in our Portuguese list, against #43,187 for "throw". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "throw" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,773 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "throw" and "tiro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "throw vs toro". 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 #20,773 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