Which to use
“thou” is a pronoun and “toh” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,558
- “thou” frequency rank
- #47,966
- “toh” frequency rank
- 53524
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thou | toh |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominative singular of ye (“you”). | To collapse (fail or break down internally); to fall asleep or collapse from exhaustion. |
Where the eye mixes thou and toh
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: thou vs toh
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thou is /ðaʊ/ while toh is [t˭o˦˨]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53524, 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/. toh is at rank #47,966, tagged as averb, pronounced [t˭o˦˨].
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 53524, this pair ranks #148,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thou vs toh
Shared letters: hot. Private to "thou": u. Private to "toh": -.
"thou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "toh" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- thou ← htou · thhou · thuo · tohu · tthou
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thou" and "toh" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "thou" or "toh"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thou" and "toh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs toh". 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 #148,264 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.