Which to use
“table” and “tale” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #958
- “table” frequency rank
- #4,416
- “tale” frequency rank
- 5374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | table | tale |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses. | A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story. |
Where the eye mixes table and tale
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. table (/ˈteɪbl̩/) and tale (/ˈteːl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
table is recorded at frequency rank #958, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteɪbl̩/. tale is at rank #4,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈteːl/.
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 5374, this pair ranks #515,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of table vs tale
Shared letters: aelt. Private to "table": b. Private to "tale": -.
"table" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV