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PlainSpell

today

to·day/təˈdeɪ/adverb, noun, adjective

today is spelled T-O-D-A-Y, 2 syllables: to·day. The wrong spelling people search most is todya: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 625 of all searches for the word. Today is an adverb meaning “On the current day or date”.

How many letters and syllables are in today?

Letters5: T-O-D-A-Y
Syllables2: to·day
In writing355 times per million words; the 256th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, todya, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell today?

Today is spelled T-O-D-A-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 616 of the searches for today in either form.

todaythe right spelling30,770 searches a month
todyaa and y swapped50 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is today?

Today appears 355 times per million words in written English, the 256th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce today?

  • UK /tʊˈdeɪ/
  • UK /təˈdeɪ/
  • US /təˈdeɪ/

Today has 2 syllables, split to·day in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-today.ogg, En-us-today.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with today

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

to-day vs today90 G

Also written: to-day (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with today?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as today from its last stressed vowel (/eɪ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: toady.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of today

  • 2day
  • todays plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does today mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adverb

  1. 1

    On the current day or date.

    I want this done today.

  2. 2

    In the current era; nowadays; these days.

    In the 1500s, people had to do things by hand, but today we have electric can openers.

  3. 3

    informalOn the day of a recurring cycle or event which is currently happening.

    We used to prepare everything today, but now we split it over two days.

noun

  1. 1

    The current day or date.

    Today is the day we'll fix this once and for all.

  2. 2

    informalThe 24-hour period beginning at 5 or 6 a.m. or sunrise of the current day.

  3. 3

    The present era; nowadays.

    This is the sporty jacket for today's modern man on the go.

adjective

  1. 1

    informalCurrent; up to date.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate today?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of today: td, tdy.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Today in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchaujourd'hui (on the current day), de nos jours, actuellement (nowadays – see also nowadays, these days…)
Germanheute, heit, hit, hüt, haid, haint (on the current day)
Portuguesehoje (on the current day), hoje em dia, atualmente (nowadays – see also nowadays, these days…)
Spanishhoy, hoy día, el día de hoy (on the current day), hodierno (Translations)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does today come from?

From Middle English today, to-daie, todæig, from Old English tōdæġ, tō dæġe (“today”, literally “on [the/this] day, [this] day forward”), equivalent to to + day. Compare Saterland Frisian däälich (“today”), Dutch vandaag (“today”), Old Saxon hindag (“today”, literally “[this] day forward”), German Low German vandage, vandaag (“today”), Swedish i dag, idag (“today”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after today