Which to use
“tolo” is an adjective and “tombo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,929
- “tolo” frequency rank
- #19,867
- “tombo” frequency rank
- 37796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tolo | tombo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sem inteligência ou sem juízo | ato ou efeito de tombar; queda |
Letter map: tolo vs tombo
Shared letters muted; letters that set tolo and tombo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tolo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tombo's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for tolo / tombo
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tolo is anadjective and tomboanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tolo is recorded at frequency rank #17,929, classified as anadj. tombo is at rank #19,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtõ.bu/.
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 37796, this pair ranks #28,778 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tolo vs tombo
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tolo": l. Private to "tombo": bm.
"tolo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tombo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tolo" and "tombo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tolo" or "tombo"?
After this comparison
You've compared "tolo" and "tombo". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "tolo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tombo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,778 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tolo" and "tombo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tolo 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 #28,778 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.