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PlainSpell

tool

/tul/noun, verb

tool is spelled T-O-O-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 36 times per million words in written English, the 2,669th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tool means “Any physical device meant to ease or do a task” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tool is tools.

How many letters and syllables are in tool?

Letters4: T-O-O-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing36 times per million words; the 2,669th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is tool?

Tool appears 36 times per million words in written English, the 2,669th 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 tool?

  • /tuːl/
  • US /tul/
  • /tʉːl/

Tool has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tool.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with tool?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tool from its last stressed vowel (/ul/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: loot.

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 tool

  • tools plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tooling participle, present
  • tooled participle, past

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

What does tool mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any physical device meant to ease or do a task.

    Several prehistoric tools, including a stone ax, were found during the dig.

  2. 2

    Any piece of equipment used in a profession, such as a craftsman's.

    the tools of the trade

  3. 3

    Anything that aids someone to perform an operation; an instrument; a means.

    Idleness is a tool of the devil.

  4. 4

    A piece of software used to develop software or hardware, or to perform low-level operations.

    The software engineer had been developing lots of EDA tools.

  5. 5

    A person or group which is used or controlled, usually unwittingly, by another person or group, a pawn.

    She was a tool of the pharmaceutical lobby.

  6. 6

    A particular skill pertaining to baseball (such as hitting, running, etc.).

    a five-tool player

  7. 7

    informalvulgarA penis, notably with a sexual or erotic connotation.

  8. 8

    derogatoryslangvulgarAn obnoxious or uptight person.

    He won't sell us tickets because it's 3:01, and they went off sale at 3. That guy's such a tool.

verb

  1. 1

    To work on or shape with tools, e.g., hand-tooled leather.

  2. 2

    To equip with tools.

  3. 3

    To work very hard.

  4. 4

    slangTo put down another person (possibly in a subtle, hidden way), and in that way to use him or her to meet a goal.

    Dude, he's not your friend. He's just tooling you.

  5. 5

    To intentionally attack the ball so that it deflects off a blocker out of bounds.

  6. 6

    UKdatedslangTo drive (a coach or other vehicle).

  7. 7

    UKdatedslangTo carry or convey in a coach or other vehicle.

    1850s, Cuthbert M. Bede, The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green Among those who seemed disposed to join in this opinion was the Jehu of the Warwickshire coach, who expressed his conviction to our hero, that "he wos a young gent as had much him

  8. 8

    slangTo travel in a vehicle; to ride or drive.

    March 8, 1890, Byron P. Stephenson, "My Trip to Brazil", in Illustrated American boys on their bicycles tooling along the well-kept roads

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

Tool in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchoutil (mechanical device intended to make a task easier), engin (penis), façonner (to work on or shape with tools)
GermanGerät, Instrument, Werkzeug (mechanical device intended to make a task easier), bearbeiten (to work on or shape with tools), Handwerkszeug (equipment used in a profession), ausstatten (to equip with tools)
Portugueseinstrumento, ferramenta (mechanical device intended to make a task easier), talhar, trabalhar (to work on or shape with tools), equipar (to equip with tools)
Spanishherramienta (mechanical device intended to make a task easier), instrumento (penis), utensilio (equipment used in a profession)

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 tool come from?

From Middle English tool, tol, from Old English tōl (“tool, implement, instrument”, literally “that with which one prepares something”), perhaps borrowed from Old Norse tól, but at any rate ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tōlą (“that which is used in preparation, tool”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”), equivalent to taw (“to prepare”) + -le (agent suffix). Cognate with Scots tuil (“tool, implement, instrument, device”), Icelandic tól (“tool”), Faroese tól (“tool, instrument”).

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

What to look up after tool