toldvstopoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,938
“told” frequency rank
#2,450
“topo” frequency rank
32388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature told topo
Definition taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados) ápice, cume, ponto mais elevado

Where the eye mixes told and topo

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

4 ch
told
4 ch
topo

Visual trap between told and topo

A purely visual mix-up. told (/tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]) and topo (/ˈto.pu/) 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 32388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

told is recorded at frequency rank #29,938, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]. topo is at rank #2,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈto.pu/.

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 32388, this pair ranks #35,436 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of told vs topo

Shared letters: ot. Private to "told": dl. Private to "topo": p.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toldotld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
  • topootpo · toop · toppo · tpoo · ttopo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "told" and "topo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ] versus /ˈto.pu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "told" or "topo"?
"topo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,450 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.

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 "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "topo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,436 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "told" and "topo" 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 #35,436 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