Which to use
“thou” is a pronoun and “tio” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,558
- “thou” frequency rank
- #43,420
- “tio” frequency rank
- 48978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thou | tio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominative singular of ye (“you”). | Correct; that's right. |
Where the eye mixes thou and tio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thou with tio
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thou is /ðaʊ/ while tio is [tjoʔ˨˩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thou is recorded at frequency rank #5,558, classified as apron, pronounced /ðaʊ/. tio is at rank #43,420, tagged as anintj, pronounced [tjoʔ˨˩].
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 48978, this pair ranks #188,013 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thou vs tio
Shared letters: ot. Private to "thou": hu. Private to "tio": i.
"thou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "tio" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- thou ← htou · thhou · thuo · tohu · tthou
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thou" for "tio" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thou" vs "tio" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "thou" and "tio" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "thou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #188,013 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thou" and "tio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs tio". 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 #188,013 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.