Which to use
“time” and “toe” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #60
- “time” frequency rank
- #6,424
- “toe” frequency rank
- 6484
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | time | toe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. | Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot. |
Where the eye mixes time and toe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. time (/taɪm/) and toe (/təʊ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
time is recorded at frequency rank #60, classified as anoun, pronounced /taɪm/. toe is at rank #6,424, tagged as anoun, pronounced /təʊ/.
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 6484, this pair ranks #511,240 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of time vs toe
Shared letters: et. Private to "time": im. Private to "toe": o.
"time" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- time ← itme · tiem · timme · tmie · ttime