Which to use
“told” is a verb and “toll” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,284
- “told” frequency rank
- #785
- “toll” frequency rank
- 45069
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | toll |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs tell | einfältig bis verrückt |
Where the eye mixes told and toll
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between told and toll
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: told is [təʊld] while toll is [tɔl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “told” becomes l in “toll”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #44,284, classified as averb, pronounced [təʊld]. toll is at rank #785, tagged as anadj, pronounced [tɔl].
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 45069, this pair ranks #1,365,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of told vs toll
Shared letters: lot. Private to "told": d. Private to "toll": -.
"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "toll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "told" for "toll" ever safe?
Which is more common, "told" or "toll"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "told" and "toll" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,365,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "told" and "toll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "told vs Tons". 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 #1,365,552 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.