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tog

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

3 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tog", 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 "tog" 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 "tog" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

tog is aEnglishnoun. It means: A cloak. Pronounced /tɒɡ/.

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Key facts for tog
PropertyValue
Headwordtog
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/tɒɡ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#59,078
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tog in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for tog is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɒɡ/. Corpus data places it at rank #59,078 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for tog in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Shortened from earlier togemans, togeman (“cloak, loose coat”), from Middle English tog, toge, togue, from Old French togue, from Latin toga (“cloak, mantle”) (compare the doublets toga and toge). Togeman(s) was an old thieves' and vegabonds' cant for "cloa… 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 tog, spelled T-O-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A cloak.
  2. 2
    A coat.
  3. 3
    swimwear.
  4. 4
    A unit of thermal resistance, being ten times the temperature difference (in °C) between the two surfaces of a material when the flow of heat is equal to one watt per square metre

Etymology

Shortened from earlier togemans, togeman (“cloak, loose coat”), from Middle English tog, toge, togue, from Old French togue, from Latin toga (“cloak, mantle”) (compare the doublets toga and toge). Togeman(s) was an old thieves' and vegabonds' cant for "cloak; coat". By the 1700s the noun tog was used as a shortened form, then with the meaning "coat"; before 1800 the word (in this sense usually in the plural; see togs) started to mean "clothing". The verb tog ("to dress up") came shortly after. The unit of thermal resistance was coined in the 1940s after the clo, a unit of thermal insulation of clothing, which was itself derived from clothes or clothing.

Frequency rank: #59,078 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tog"?
"tog" is spelled T-O-G. The IPA pronunciation is /tɒɡ/.
What does "tog" mean?
As a noun, "tog" means: A cloak.
How do you pronounce "tog"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tog" is /tɒɡ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "tog"?
Shortened from earlier togemans, togeman (“cloak, loose coat”), from Middle English tog, toge, togue, from Old French togue, from Latin toga (“cloak, mantle”) (compare the doublets toga and toge). Togeman(s) was an old thieves' and vegabonds' cant... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.