tomovstotóConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,352
“tomo” frequency rank
#37,112
“totó” frequency rank
43464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomo totó
Definition volume de obra impressa ou manuscrita cão

Where the eye mixes tomo and totó

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tomo and totó follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
tomo
4 ch
totó

Visual trap between tomo and totó

A purely visual mix-up. tomo (/ˈto.mu/) and totó (/tɔ.ˈtɔ/) 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 43464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomo is recorded at frequency rank #6,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈto.mu/. totó is at rank #37,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɔ.ˈtɔ/.

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 43464, this pair ranks #22,175 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tomo vs totó

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tomo": m. Private to "totó": ó.

"tomo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "totó" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomo ← otmo · tmoo · tommo · toom · ttomo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomo" for "totó" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈto.mu/ versus /tɔ.ˈtɔ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tomo" or "totó"?
"tomo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,352 in our Portuguese list, against #37,112 for "totó". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "totó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,175 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomo" and "totó" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "totó 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 #22,175 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