English homophones
toe/tow
"toe" is a noun; "tow" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "toe" arrives as a noun, while "tow" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Single-letter fork: "toe" keeps e, "tow" writes w at letter 3.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across toe, tow: ot. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
toe
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory eot · private e
tow
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory otw · private w
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "toe" when you mean: Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot.
- Write "tow" when you mean: To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (toe, tow). Here's where to go from here.
- "toe" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,424 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: their · they're. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.