tunavsturmaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,633
“tuna” frequency rank
#2,452
“turma” frequency rank
48085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tuna turma
Definition água, substância líquida (H₂O) grupo

Where the eye mixes tuna and turma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tuna runs 4 letters (CVCV) against turma's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
tuna
5 ch
turma

Why the eye confuses tuna with turma

A purely visual mix-up. tuna (/tu.na/ [tu.na]) and turma (/ˈtuɾ.mɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tuna is recorded at frequency rank #45,633, classified as anoun, pronounced /tu.na/ [tu.na]. turma is at rank #2,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtuɾ.mɐ/.

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 48085, this pair ranks #17,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tuna vs turma

Shared letters: atu. Private to "tuna": n. Private to "turma": mr.

"tuna" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "turma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tuna ← tnua · ttuna · tuan · tunna · utna
  • turma ← truma · tturma · tumra · turam · turmma · turrma · utrma

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tuna" for "turma" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/tu.na/ [tu.na] versus /ˈtuɾ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tuna" or "turma"?
"turma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,452 in our Portuguese list, against #45,633 for "tuna". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tuna" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tuna" and "turma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tufo 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 #17,123 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