thatvstoaTell them apart

Quick tell: that is a conjunction, toa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“that” is a conjunction and “toa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10
“that” frequency rank
#41,432
“toa” frequency rank
41442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature that toa
Definition Introducing a clause that is the object of a verb, especially a reporting verb or verb expressing belief, knowledge, perception, etc. A small painted artifact made by the Diyari people of Australia, believed to have been used as place markers or signposts.

Letter map: that vs toa

Shared letters muted; letters that set that and toa apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
that
3 ch
toa

Grammar separator: that vs toa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: that is aconjunction and toaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

that is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as aconj, pronounced /ðət/. toa is at rank #41,432, tagged as anoun.

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 41442, this pair ranks #258,347 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of that vs toa

Shared letters: at. Private to "that": h. Private to "toa": o.

"that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "toa" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thathtat · taht · thatt · thhat · thta · tthat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "that" and "toa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "that" is a conjunction and "toa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "that" vs "toa" - which ranks higher?
"that" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our English list, against #41,432 for "toa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "that" and "toa". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "that" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,347 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "that" and "toa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toa vs Trav". 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 #258,347 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