tocavstoldWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,545
“toca” frequency rank
#29,938
“told” frequency rank
32483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toca told
Definition buraco, natural ou aberto por alguns animais (roedores, aves, desdentados, etc.), usado como abrigo em árvores, solo, pedras ou outros ambientes (como a casa de troncos do castor) taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados)

Where the eye mixes toca and told

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
toca
4 ch
told

Look-alike desk: toca vs told

A purely visual mix-up. toca (/ˈtɔ.kɐ/) and told (/tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]) 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 32483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toca is recorded at frequency rank #2,545, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ.kɐ/. told is at rank #29,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ].

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 32483, this pair ranks #35,316 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toca vs told

Shared letters: ot. Private to "toca": ac. Private to "told": dl.

"toca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tocaotca · tcoa · toac · tocca · ttoca
  • toldotld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "toca" and "told" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtɔ.kɐ/ versus /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "toca" vs "told" - which ranks higher?
"toca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,545 in our Portuguese list, against #29,938 for "told". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "toca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "told" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,316 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toca" and "told" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "told 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 #35,316 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