to-do
"to-do" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“to-do” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fuss made over something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-to-do · to-do · English
to-do · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | to-do |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “to-do” in English
Rare enough to double-check
to-do is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for to-do, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From to + do, formed on analogy with ado. Compare affair. The correct English form is to-do, spelled T-O---D-O.
Definition
- 1A fuss made over something.
- 2A task that has been noted as one that must be completed, especially on a list.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how to-do appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I was embarrassed that they made such a big to-do out of my birthday.
Last year, Russell Brand caused another to-do. This time he wasn’t playing nasty jokes on Andrew Sachs, or boasting about the millions of people he’d slept with; he wasn’t calling George Bush a “retard”, or giving a Nazi salute at the GQ awards, or turning up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden […] No, this time he simply made a political statement.
Etymology
From to + do, formed on analogy with ado. Compare affair.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.