Toe or tow?
toe is a noun meaning “Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot”; tow is a verb meaning “To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue”. Use toe as a noun and tow as a verb (tow is also a noun: “The act of towing and the condition of being towed”). They sound the same (/təʊ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) toe is about 2.2 times as common as tow.
What is the difference between toe and tow?
| toe | tow | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | verb, noun, phrase |
| Meaning | Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot The equivalent part in an animal To furnish (a stocking, etc.) with a toe | To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance The act of towing and the condition of being towed |
| Example | (golf) the extreme end of the head of a club | Near-synonyms: draw, haul, pull, trail |
| Forms | toes | tows, towing, towed |
| Pronunciation | /təʊ/ /toʊ/ /to/ | /təʊ/ /toʊ/ /to/ |
| In writing | 12 times per million words | 5.2 times per million words |
Sources: toe and tow in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of toe and tow
toe
- 1
Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot
- 2
To furnish (a stocking, etc.) with a toe
- 3
Initialism of theory of everything
- 4
Initialism of theory of everything
- 5
The equivalent part in an animal
- 6
To touch, tap or kick with the toes
- 7
Initialism of table of organization and equipment
- 8
The part of a shoe or sock covering the toe
tow
- 1
To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue
Near-synonyms: draw, haul, pull, trail
- 2
The act of towing and the condition of being towed
It isn't the car's battery; I think I need a tow
- 3
An untwisted bundle of fibres such as cellulose acetate, flax, hemp or jute
- 4
Initialism of tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided: a kind of antitank missile
- 5
slangInitialism of The One with ... or The One Where ...: used to refer to episodes of the American television sitcom Friends
TOW the Prom Video
- 6
To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance
- 7
Something, such as a tugboat, that tows
- 8
The short, coarse, less desirable fibres separated by hackling from the finer longer fibres (line)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, toe or tow?
toe appears 12 times per million words; tow 5.2 times per million words.
toe 12 times per million wordstow 5.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search toe vs tow?
“toe vs tow” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“tow vs toe”, “toe or tow”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.