textvstoutWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,062
“text” frequency rank
#23,134
“tout” frequency rank
24196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature text tout
Definition A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences. Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.

Where the eye mixes text and tout

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
text
4 ch
tout

Visual trap between text and tout

A purely visual mix-up. text (/tɛkst/) and tout (/taʊt/) 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 24196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

text is recorded at frequency rank #1,062, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɛkst/. tout is at rank #23,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taʊt/.

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 24196, this pair ranks #403,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of text vs tout

Shared letters: t. Private to "text": ex. Private to "tout": ou.

"text" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "tout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • textetxt · tetx · textt · texxt · ttext · txet
  • toutotut · totu · toutt · ttout · tuot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "text" for "tout" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/tɛkst/ versus /taʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "text" or "tout"?
"text" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,062 in our English list, against #23,134 for "tout". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "text" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "text" and "tout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tout vs tuft". 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

Confusion rank #403,773 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list