toe
/təʊ/
"toe" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“toe” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,424 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,424
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Each of the five digits on the end of the human foot.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| 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) |
Where “toe” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for toe is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, 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 generated misspelling entries exist for toe in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "TX", "Tu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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… The correct English form is toe, spelled T-O-E.
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
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “toe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /təʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “TV” - see the side-by-side comparison. toe vs TV
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.