messengervsTOTell them apart

Quick tell: messenger is a noun, TO is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#14,875
“messenger” frequency rank
#589
“TO” frequency rank
15464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature messenger TO
Definition Person, die Nachrichten überbringt KFZ-Kennzeichen für Torino (Turin)

Letter map: messenger vs TO

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

9 ch
messenger
2 ch
TO

Role in the sentence - messenger and TO

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: messenger is anoun and TOanabbrev. On the page they differ by 7 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

messenger is recorded at frequency rank #14,875, 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 15464, this pair ranks #1,943,674 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of messenger vs TO

Shared letters: none. Private to "messenger": egmnrs. Private to "TO": ot.

"messenger" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "TO" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • messengeremssenger · mesenger · mesesnger · messegner · messenegr · messengerr · messengger · messengre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "messenger" for "TO" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "messenger" is a noun and "TO" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "messenger" or "TO"?
"TO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our German list, against #14,875 for "messenger". 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 "messenger" and "TO".

  • Full dictionary entry for "messenger" 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 #1,943,674 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "messenger" and "TO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "messenger vs puzzles". 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 #1,943,674 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list