Which to use
“told” is a verb and “tomb” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #268
- “told” frequency rank
- #8,495
- “tomb” frequency rank
- 8763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | tomb |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of tell | A small building, or a room within one, for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set told and tomb apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
told and tomb form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #268, classified as averb, pronounced /təʊld/. tomb is at rank #8,495, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tuːm/.
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 8763, this pair ranks #500,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "told" and "tomb" be used interchangeably?
Remembering told vs tomb
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “told”; for a noun, it's “tomb”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “told” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable