todvstodayWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tod is a noun, today is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tod” is a noun and “today” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,706
“tod” frequency rank
#258
“today” frequency rank
23964
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tod today
Definition A male fox. On the current day or date.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tod and today apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
tod
5 ch
today

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tod is /tɒd/ while today is /təˈdeɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “tod” sits inside “today”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tod is recorded at frequency rank #23,706, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɒd/. today is at rank #258, tagged as anadv, pronounced /təˈdeɪ/.

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 23964, this pair ranks #405,513 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tod vs today

Shared letters: dot. Private to "tod": -. Private to "today": ay.

"tod" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "today" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • todayotday · tdoay · toady · todayy · todday · todya · ttoday

Frequency comparison

tod#23,706
today#258

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tod" and "today" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tod" is a noun and "today" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tod" or "today"?
"today" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #258 in our English list, against #23,706 for "tod". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering tod vs today

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tod”; for an adverb, it's “today”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tod” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list