Which to use
“tónica” is a noun and “toxic” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,169
- “tónica” frequency rank
- #30,755
- “toxic” frequency rank
- 78924
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tónica | toxic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nota, vogal ou sílaba tónica | tóxico |
Where the eye mixes tónica and toxic
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tónica runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against toxic's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between tónica and toxic
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tónica is /ˈtɔ.ni.kɐ/ while toxic is /'tɒks.ɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tónica is recorded at frequency rank #48,169, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ.ni.kɐ/. toxic is at rank #30,755, tagged as anadj, pronounced /'tɒks.ɪk/.
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 78924, this pair ranks #1,578 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tónica vs toxic
Shared letters: cit. Private to "tónica": anó. Private to "toxic": ox.
"tónica" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "toxic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- toxic ← otxic · toixc · toxci · toxicc · toxxic · ttoxic · txoic
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tónica" and "toxic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tónica" or "toxic" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tónica" and "toxic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tónica" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toxic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,578 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tónica" and "toxic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tónica vs touca". 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 #1,578 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.