Which to use
“tone” and “tour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,092
- “tone” frequency rank
- #1,112
- “tour” frequency rank
- 4204
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tone | tour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A specific pitch. | A journey through a particular building, estate, country, etc. |
Where the eye mixes tone and tour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. tone (/təʊn/) and tour (/tɔː(ɹ)/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tone is recorded at frequency rank #3,092, classified as anoun, pronounced /təʊn/. tour is at rank #1,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɔː(ɹ)/.
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 4204, this pair ranks #519,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tone vs tour
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tone": en. Private to "tour": ru.
"tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC