Which to use
“toll” is a noun and “Tully” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,304
- “toll” frequency rank
- #26,640
- “Tully” frequency rank
- 32944
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toll | Tully |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc. | A surname. |
Where the eye mixes toll and Tully
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. toll runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Tully's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between toll and Tully
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toll is /təʊl/ while Tully is /ˈtʌliː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
toll is recorded at frequency rank #6,304, classified as anoun, pronounced /təʊl/. Tully is at rank #26,640, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈtʌliː/.
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 32944, this pair ranks #333,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of toll vs Tully
Shared letters: lt. Private to "toll": o. Private to "Tully": uy.
"toll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Tully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "toll" and "Tully" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "toll" or "Tully"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "toll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Tully" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toll" and "Tully" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tulle vs Tully". 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 #333,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.