Which to use
“tossed” and “towed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,466
- “tossed” frequency rank
- #17,737
- “towed” frequency rank
- 28203
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tossed | towed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of toss | simple past and past participle of tow |
Where the eye mixes tossed and towed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tossed runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against towed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: tossed vs towed
A purely visual mix-up. tossed (/tɒst/) and towed (/toʊd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tossed is recorded at frequency rank #10,466, classified as averb, pronounced /tɒst/. towed is at rank #17,737, tagged as averb, pronounced /toʊd/.
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 28203, this pair ranks #372,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tossed vs towed
Shared letters: deot. Private to "tossed": s. Private to "towed": w.
"tossed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "towed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tossed" for "towed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tossed" vs "towed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tossed" and "towed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tossed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "towed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tossed" and "towed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tobe vs towed". 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 #372,925 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.