tonkvstourConfusable pair

Which to use

“tonk” and “tour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,387
“tonk” frequency rank
#1,112
“tour” frequency rank
48499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tonk tour
Definition An illegal immigrant of any country. A journey through a particular building, estate, country, etc.

Letter map: tonk vs tour

Shared letters muted; letters that set tonk and tour apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. tonk (CVCC) and tour (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
tonk
4 ch
tour

Corpus notes: tonk and tour

tonk and tour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tonk is recorded at frequency rank #47,387, classified as anoun. 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 48499, this pair ranks #192,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tonk vs tour

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tonk": kn. Private to "tour": ru.

"tonk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "tour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tonk ← otnk · tnok · tokn · tonkk · tonnk · ttonk
  • tour ← otur · toru · tourr · ttour · tuor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tonk" for "tour" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "tonk" or "tour"?
"tour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,112 in our English list, against #47,387 for "tonk". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "tonk" and "tour". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tonk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tonk" and "tour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tonk 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 #192,512 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list