toll vs toy, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“toll” is an adjective and “toy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#785
“toll” frequency rank: #29,819
“toy” frequency rank: 30604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	toll	toy
Definition	einfältig bis verrückt	Spielzeug

Letter map: toll vs toy

Shared letters muted; letters that set toll and toy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

toll

3 ch

toy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: toll is anadjective and toyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toll is recorded at frequency rank #785, classified as anadj, pronounced [tɔl]. toy is at rank #29,819, tagged as anoun, 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 30604, this pair ranks #1,744,572 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of toll vs toy

Shared letters: ot. Private to "toll": l. Private to "toy": y.

"toll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "toy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

toll ← otll · tlol · tol · ttoll

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "toll" and "toy" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "toll" or "toy"?

"toll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #785 in our German list, against #29,819 for "toy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "toll" and "toy". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "toll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "toy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,744,572 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"toll" and "toy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs toy". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.