tobevsTokConfusable pair

Quick tell: tobe is a noun, Tok is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tobe” is a noun and “Tok” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,100
“tobe” frequency rank
#33,061
“Tok” frequency rank
82161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tobe Tok
Definition A cotton garment worn in parts of northern Africa. A surname from Khmer.

Letter map: tobe vs Tok

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

4 ch
tobe
3 ch
Tok

Role in the sentence - tobe and Tok

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tobe is anoun and Tokaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tobe is recorded at frequency rank #49,100, classified as anoun, pronounced /təʊb/. Tok is at rank #33,061, tagged as aname.

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 82161, this pair ranks #16,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tobe vs Tok

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tobe": be. Private to "Tok": k.

"tobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Tok" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tobeotbe · tboe · tobbe · toeb · ttobe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tobe" for "Tok" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tobe" is a noun and "Tok" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tobe" vs "Tok" - which ranks higher?
"Tok" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,061 in our English list, against #49,100 for "tobe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "tobe" vs "Tok" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tok" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tobe" and "Tok" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tobe vs Toth". 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 #16,268 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