tomarvstosaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#611
“tomar” frequency rank
#47,644
“tosa” frequency rank
48255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomar tosa
Definition agarrar falar, conversar

Letter map: tomar vs tosa

Shared letters muted; letters that set tomar and tosa apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tomar
4 ch
tosa

Corpus notes: tomar and tosa

tomar and tosa 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 48255, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomar is recorded at frequency rank #611, classified as averb, pronounced /tu.ˈmaɾ/. tosa is at rank #47,644, tagged as averb.

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 48255, this pair ranks #16,935 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tomar vs tosa

Shared letters: aot. Private to "tomar": mr. Private to "tosa": s.

"tomar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomarotmar · tmoar · toamr · tomarr · tommar · tomra · ttomar
  • tosaotsa · toas · tossa · tsoa · ttosa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomar" for "tosa" ever safe?
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.
Frequency check: "tomar" vs "tosa" - which ranks higher?
"tomar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #611 in our Portuguese list, against #47,644 for "tosa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tomar" and "tosa".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,935 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomar" and "tosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tosa vs tuna". 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 #16,935 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