tablevstileWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“table” and “tile” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#958
“table” frequency rank
#10,948
“tile” frequency rank
11906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature table tile
Definition Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses. A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile, etc.

Where the eye mixes table and tile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
table
4 ch
tile

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. table (/ˈteɪbl̩/) and tile (/taɪl/) 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 11906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

table is recorded at frequency rank #958, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteɪbl̩/. tile is at rank #10,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taɪl/.

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 11906, this pair ranks #484,473 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of table vs tile

Shared letters: elt. Private to "table": ab. Private to "tile": i.

"table" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tableatble · tabble · tabel · tablle · talbe · tbale · tible · ttable
  • tileitle · tiel · tille · tlie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "table" and "tile" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈteɪbl̩/ versus /taɪl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "table" or "tile"?
"table" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #958 in our English list, against #10,948 for "tile". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list