Tu
"tu" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Tu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #10,301) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #10,301
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname from Chinese.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tu · Tu · English
Tu · rank #10,301 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #10,301
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH traps
Nearest frequency peer: traps (-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 neighbourhood for “Tu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Tories
Tories
89,703 corpus weight
- transplant
transplant
89,702 corpus weight
- traps
traps
89,701 corpus weight
- Tu
Tu
89,700 corpus weight
- turf
turf
89,699 corpus weight
- twitch
twitch
89,698 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Tu” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | Tu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #10,301 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Tu” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for Tu is neighbouring look-alikes ("TV", "TX", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun. Frequency #10,301 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Gloss: "A surname from Chinese.".
Tu has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "TX", "Ty", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Chinese. The correct English form is Tu, spelled T-U.
Definition
- 1A surname from Chinese.
Etymology
Borrowed from Chinese.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What to do next
You've looked up "Tu". Here's where to go from here.
- "Tu" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "TV". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #10,301 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "T" letter cohort. T–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.