tort
/tɔːt/
"tort" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tort” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #25,620. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #25,620
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of da...
Corpus desk
Index EN-tort · tort · English
tort · rank #25,620 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #25,620
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Topeka
Nearest frequency peer: Topeka (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “tort”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- tingling
tingling
74,385 corpus weight
- todays
todays
74,384 corpus weight
- Tonga
Tonga
74,383 corpus weight
- Topeka
Topeka
74,382 corpus weight
- tort
tort
74,381 corpus weight
- tra
tra
74,379 corpus weight
What this shows “tort” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | tort |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɔːt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #25,620 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “tort”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around tort (IPA /tɔːt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #25,620 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for tort, with forms such as "otrt", "torrt", and "tortt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TT", "try", "toy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tort (“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”), from Old French tort (“misdeed, wrong”) (modern French tort (“an error, wrong; a fault”)), from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, wrong”), a noun use of a neuter singular par… The correct English form is tort, spelled T-O-R-T.
Definition
- 1A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
- 2An injury or wrong.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tort appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] Wrong or Iniury, is in French aptly called Tort, becauſe Iniury & wrong is wreſted or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and ſtreight. […] And Britton ſaith that Tort a la ley eſt contrarye [a wrong to the law is contrary], and as aptly for the cauſe aforeſaid is iniury in English called wrong.
Personal actions are ſuch vvhereby a man claims a debt, or perſonal duty, or damages in lieu thereof; and likevviſe vvhereby a man claims a ſatisfaction in damages for ſome injury done to his perſon or property. The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […] of the latter all actions for treſpaſſes, nuſances, aſſault…
Etymology
From Middle English tort (“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”), from Old French tort (“misdeed, wrong”) (modern French tort (“an error, wrong; a fault”)), from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, wrong”), a noun use of a neuter singular participle form of Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”), the perfect passive participle of torqueō (“to bend or twist awry, distort”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). Cognates * Galician torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong, tort”) * Italian torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) injustice, wrong”) * Norwegian Bokmål tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Norwegian Nynorsk tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Occitan tort * Old French tort (modern French tort) * Portuguese torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong”) * Spanish tuerto (“injury, offence”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- otrt
- torrt
- tortt
- totr
- ttort
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tort - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tort", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).