toldvsToriConfusable pair

Quick tell: told is a verb, Tori is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“told” is a verb and “Tori” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,284
“told” frequency rank
#41,508
“Tori” frequency rank
85792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature told Tori
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs tell im Judo die Person, die angreift beziehungsweise die die Technik ausführt

Where the eye mixes told and Tori

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. told (CVCC) and Tori (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
told
4 ch
Tori

Visual trap between told and Tori

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: told is [təʊld] while Tori is [ˈtoːʁi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85792, 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]. Tori is at rank #41,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtoːʁi].

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 85792, this pair ranks #103,041 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of told vs Tori

Shared letters: ot. Private to "told": dl. Private to "Tori": ir.

"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Tori" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • told ← otld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
  • Tori ← otri · toir · torri · ttori

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "told" for "Tori" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "told" is a verb and "Tori" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "told" or "Tori"?
"Tori" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,508 in our German list, against #44,284 for "told". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tori" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,041 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "told" and "Tori" 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 #103,041 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