tolovstoscoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,929
“tolo” frequency rank
#33,210
“tosco” frequency rank
51139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tolo tosco
Definition sem inteligência ou sem juízo que não é lapidado, polido, etc.; bruto, rústico

Letter map: tolo vs tosco

Shared letters muted; letters that set tolo and tosco apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tolo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tosco's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
tolo
5 ch
tosco

Spelling & dictionary notes on tolo vs tosco

tolo and tosco are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tolo is recorded at frequency rank #17,929, classified as anadj. tosco is at rank #33,210, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtoʃ.ku/.

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 51139, this pair ranks #13,858 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tolo vs tosco

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tolo": l. Private to "tosco": cs.

"tolo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tosco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tolo ← otlo · tloo · tollo · ttolo
  • tosco ← otsco · tocso · toscco · tosoc · tossco · tsoco · ttosco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tolo" and "tosco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "tolo" or "tosco"?
"tolo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,929 in our Portuguese list, against #33,210 for "tosco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "tolo" and "tosco". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tolo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tosco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,858 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tolo" and "tosco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tosa vs tosco". 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 #13,858 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