tirovstufoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,480
“tiro” frequency rank
#48,703
“tufo” frequency rank
50183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tiro tufo
Definition ato de disparar uma arma de fogo montículo, proeminência

Where the eye mixes tiro and tufo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tiro and tufo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
tiro
4 ch
tufo

Look-alike desk: tiro vs tufo

A purely visual mix-up. tiro (/ˈti.ɾu/) and tufo (/ˈtu.fu/) 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 50183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tiro is recorded at frequency rank #1,480, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈti.ɾu/. tufo is at rank #48,703, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtu.fu/.

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 50183, this pair ranks #14,805 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tiro vs tufo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tiro": ir. Private to "tufo": fu.

"tiro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tufo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tiro ← itro · tior · tirro · trio · ttiro
  • tufo ← tfuo · ttufo · tuffo · tuof · utfo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tiro" for "tufo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈti.ɾu/ versus /ˈtu.fu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tiro" or "tufo" show up more?
"tiro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,480 in our Portuguese list, against #48,703 for "tufo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "tiro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tufo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,805 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tiro" and "tufo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tifo vs tufo". 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 #14,805 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