by vs TO, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“by” is a noun and “TO” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,627
“by” frequency rank: #589
“TO” frequency rank: 2216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	by	TO
Definition	Stadt	KFZ-Kennzeichen für Torino (Turin)

Letter map: by vs TO

Shared letters muted; letters that set by and TO apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

2 ch

Grammar separator: by vs TO

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: by is anoun and TOanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

by is recorded at frequency rank #1,627, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. TO is at rank #589, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced […].

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 2216, this pair ranks #2,002,839 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of by vs TO

Shared letters: none. Private to "by": by. Private to "TO": ot.

"by" · 2 letters · shape CV · "TO" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "by" for "TO" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "by" is a noun and "TO" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "by" vs "TO" - which ranks higher?

"TO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our German list, against #1,627 for "by". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "by" vs "TO" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "by" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "TO" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #2,002,839 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"by" and "TO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "by vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,002,839 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.