Which to use
“tough” is an adjective and “tug” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,777
- “tough” frequency rank
- #15,079
- “tug” frequency rank
- 16856
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tough | tug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Strong and resilient; sturdy. | To pull or drag with great effort. |
Where the eye mixes tough and tug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tough is /tʌf/ while tug is /tʌɡ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tough is recorded at frequency rank #1,777, classified as anadj, pronounced /tʌf/. tug is at rank #15,079, tagged as averb, pronounced /tʌɡ/.
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 16856, this pair ranks #455,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tough vs tug
Shared letters: gtu. Private to "tough": ho. Private to "tug": -.
"tough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "tug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tough ← otugh · toguh · touggh · toughh · touhg · ttough · tuogh