tablevstitleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#958
“table” frequency rank
#839
“title” frequency rank
1797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature table title
Definition Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses. The name of a film, musical piece, painting, or other work of art.

Where the eye mixes table and title

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

5 ch
table
5 ch
title

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. table (/ˈteɪbl̩/) and title (/ˈtaɪ.tl̩/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

table is recorded at frequency rank #958, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteɪbl̩/. title is at rank #839, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtaɪ.tl̩/.

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 1797, this pair ranks #526,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of table vs title

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

"table" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "title" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tableatble · tabble · tabel · tablle · talbe · tbale · tible · ttable
  • titleittle · tilte · titel · titlle · tittle · ttile · ttitle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "table" and "title" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈteɪbl̩/ versus /ˈtaɪ.tl̩/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "table" or "title"?
"title" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #839 in our English list, against #958 for "table". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list