toll

/təʊl/

//təʊl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"toll" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“toll” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,304) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,304
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.

Corpus desk

Index EN-toll · toll · English

toll · rank #6,304 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,304
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH throws

Nearest frequency peer: throws (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “toll”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “toll” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

toll vs too
50% similar
toll vs top
50% similar
toll vs tom
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for toll
PropertyValue
Headwordtoll
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/təʊl/
Letters4
Frequency rank#6,304
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “toll”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).tolllands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “throws” (#6,303), “tooth” (#6,305), “tastes” (#6,302). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “toll” is #6,304. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for toll is neighbouring look-alikes ("too", "top", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /təʊl/. Frequency #6,304 among 3,151 “T” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for toll, with forms such as "otll", "tlol", and "ttoll". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "too", "top", "tom", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“… The correct English form is toll, spelled T-O-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.
  2. 2
    Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.
  3. 3
    A fee paid by the owner of materials or other goods for processing such goods, as under a tolling agreement.
  4. 4
    A fee for using any kind of material processing service.
  5. 5
    A tollbooth.
  6. 6
    A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
  7. 7
    A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how toll appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Meanwhile, the tolls dispute had gone to the courts, and the E.L.R. was completely successful when, in 1856, the House of Lords awarded it the sum of £30,000 against the L.Y.R. for tolls overcharged.
  2. The war has taken its toll on the people.

Etymology

From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tol (“toll”), Dutch tol (“toll”), German Zoll (“toll, duty, customs”), Danish told (“toll, duty, tariff”), Swedish tull (“toll, customs”), Icelandic tollur (“toll, customs”). More at tell, tale. Alternate etymology derives Old English toll from Medieval Latin tolōneum, tolōnium, alteration (due to the Germanic forms above) of Latin telōneum, from Ancient Greek τελώνιον (telṓnion, “toll-house”), from τέλος (télos, “tax”).

This word in other languages

peaje(Español)péage(Français)Abgabe(Deutsch)portagem(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • otll
  • tlol
  • ttoll

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of toll - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

otll2tlol2ttoll1
Edit distance from "toll"

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

How do you spell "toll"?
"toll" is spelled T-O-L-L. The IPA pronunciation is /təʊl/.
What does "toll" mean?
As a noun, "toll" means: A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "toll"?
"toll" is commonly confused with "too", "top", "tom". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "toll"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "toll" is /təʊl/. 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 "toll"?
From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-Europea... 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "toll", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

torn#6,306shaw#6,296pets#6,280pale#6,275

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list