tocavsTongaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,545
“toca” frequency rank
#28,048
“Tonga” frequency rank
30593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toca Tonga
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) Tonga

Where the eye mixes toca and Tonga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
toca
5 ch
Tonga

Visual trap between toca and Tonga

A purely visual mix-up. toca (/ˈtɔ.kɐ/) and Tonga (/ˈtɔŋaː/, /ˈtɔŋgaː/) 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 30593, 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/. Tonga is at rank #28,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔŋaː/, /ˈtɔŋgaː/.

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 30593, this pair ranks #37,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toca vs Tonga

Shared letters: aot. Private to "toca": c. Private to "Tonga": gn.

"toca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Tonga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tocaotca · tcoa · toac · tocca · ttoca
  • Tongaotnga · tnoga · togna · tonag · tongga · tonnga · ttonga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "toca" for "Tonga" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtɔ.kɐ/ versus /ˈtɔŋaː/, /ˈtɔŋgaː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "toca" vs "Tonga" - which ranks higher?
"toca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,545 in our Portuguese list, against #28,048 for "Tonga". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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 "Tonga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toca" and "Tonga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tonga vs tónica". 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 #37,707 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