toe
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "toe", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "toe" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "toe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
toe is aEnglishnoun. It means: Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot. Pronounced /təʊ/. It ranks #6,424 in English word frequency. Often confused with TV and TX.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | toe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /təʊ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,424 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for toe is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /təʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,424 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for toe in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "TX", "Tu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English to, from Old English tā, (Mercian) tāhe, from Proto-West Germanic *taihā, from Proto-Germanic *taihwǭ, from *tīhwaną (“to show, announce”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”). See also Dutch teen, German Zehe, Danish tå, Swedish… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is toe, spelled T-O-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot.
- 2The equivalent part in an animal.
- 3That part of a shoe or sock covering the toe.
- 4Something resembling a toe, especially at the bottom or extreme end of something.
- 5An advanced form of ballet primarily performed by women, wearing pointe shoes.
- 6An alignment of the wheels of a road vehicle, either positive (toe in), meaning the wheels are closer together at the front than at the back, or negative (toe out), the other way round.
- 7The journal, or pivot, at the lower end of a revolving shaft or spindle, which rests in a step.
- 8A lateral projection at one end, or between the ends, of a piece, such as a rod or bolt, by means of which it is moved.
- 9A projection from the periphery of a revolving piece, acting as a cam to lift another piece.
- 10The long side of an angled cut.
- 11The upper end of the bit (cutting edge) of an axehead; as opposed to the heel (lower end).
- 12A cameltoe.
- 13Speed, energy, vigor.
- 14a person
Etymology
From Middle English to, from Old English tā, (Mercian) tāhe, from Proto-West Germanic *taihā, from Proto-Germanic *taihwǭ, from *tīhwaną (“to show, announce”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”). See also Dutch teen, German Zehe, Danish tå, Swedish tå; also Old English teōn (“to accuse”), German zeihen (“to accuse, blame”); also Hittite [script needed] (tekkuššāi), Latin dīcere (“to say”), digitus (“finger”), Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “to point out, show”), Sanskrit दिदेष्टि (dídeṣṭi), दिशति (diśáti).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #6,424 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: