Which to use
“tine” and “toke” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,530
- “tine” frequency rank
- #40,056
- “toke” frequency rank
- 84586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tine | toke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb. | A gratuity. |
Where the eye mixes tine and toke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tine and toke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tine vs toke
A purely visual mix-up. tine (/taɪn/) and toke (/təʊk/) 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 84586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tine is recorded at frequency rank #44,530, classified as anoun, pronounced /taɪn/. toke is at rank #40,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced /təʊk/.
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 84586, this pair ranks #11,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tine vs toke
Shared letters: et. Private to "tine": in. Private to "toke": ko.
"tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "toke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tine" and "toke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tine" or "toke"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tine" and "toke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tine vs tobe". 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 #11,809 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.