Which to use
“toed” is an adjective and “told” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,990
- “toed” frequency rank
- #268
- “told” frequency rank
- 36258
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toed | told |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having (a specified number or type of) toes. | simple past and past participle of tell |
Where the eye mixes toed and told
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: toed vs told
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toed is /təʊd/ while told is /təʊld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “toed” becomes l in “told”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
toed is recorded at frequency rank #35,990, classified as anadj, pronounced /təʊd/. told is at rank #268, tagged as averb, pronounced /təʊld/.
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 36258, this pair ranks #304,682 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of toed vs told
Shared letters: dot. Private to "toed": e. Private to "told": l.
"toed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "toed" and "told" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "toed" vs "told" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "toed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "told" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,682 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toed" and "told" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toed 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 #304,682 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.