ToCvstoxicWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ToC is a noun, toxic is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ToC” is a noun and “toxic” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,055
“ToC” frequency rank
#4,807
“toxic” frequency rank
44862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ToC toxic
Definition Alternative letter-case form of TOC (“table of contents”). Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.

Letter map: ToC vs toxic

Shared letters muted; letters that set ToC and toxic apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
ToC
5 ch
toxic

Grammar separator: ToC vs toxic

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ToC is anoun and toxicanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ToC is recorded at frequency rank #40,055, classified as anoun. toxic is at rank #4,807, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɒk.sɪk/.

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 44862, this pair ranks #226,633 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ToC vs toxic

Shared letters: cot. Private to "ToC": -. Private to "toxic": ix.

"ToC" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "toxic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toxicotxic · toixc · toxci · toxicc · toxxic · ttoxic · txoic

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ToC" and "toxic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ToC" is a noun and "toxic" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ToC" or "toxic" show up more?
"toxic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,807 in our English list, against #40,055 for "ToC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ToC" and "toxic". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ToC" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toxic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,633 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ToC" and "toxic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs ToC". 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 #226,633 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