Tort or torte?
tort is a noun meaning “A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and…”; torte is a noun meaning “A rich, dense cake, typically made with many eggs and relatively little flour…”. They sound the same (/tɔːt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) tort is about 9.8 times as common as torte.
What is the difference between tort and torte?
| tort | torte | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, suffix | noun |
| Meaning | A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil… UKSynonym of tart (“sharp- or sour-tasting; (figuratively) keen, severe, sharp”) To make something change its shape | A rich, dense cake, typically made with many eggs and relatively little flour (as opposed to a sponge cake or gâteau) |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | torts | tortes, torten |
| Pronunciation | /tɔːt/ /tɔɹt/ | /tɔːt/ /tɔɹt/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | about once in every 8 million words |
Sources: tort and torte in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of tort and torte
tort
- 1
A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of…
- 2
UKSynonym of tart (“sharp- or sour-tasting; (figuratively) keen, severe, sharp”)
- 3
To make something change its shape
torte
- 1
A rich, dense cake, typically made with many eggs and relatively little flour (as opposed to a sponge cake or gâteau)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, tort or torte?
tort appears 1.3 times per million words; torte about once in every 8 million words.
tort 1.3 times per million wordstorte about once in every 8 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search tort vs torte?
“tort vs torte” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“torte vs tort”, “tort or torte”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.