tilvsTOCWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: til is a preposition, TOC is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“til” is a preposition and “TOC” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,972
“til” frequency rank
#17,835
“TOC” frequency rank
46807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature til TOC
Definition Hasta. Trastorno caracterizado por pensamientos intrusivos, repetitivos y persistentes que producen gran ansiedad y otras molestias que el afectado trata de mitigar mediante rituales repetitivos denominados compulsiones.

Where the eye mixes til and TOC

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
til
3 ch
TOC

Why the eye confuses til with TOC

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: til is /tɪl/ while TOC is [ˈt̪ok]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

til is recorded at frequency rank #28,972, classified as aprep, pronounced /tɪl/. TOC is at rank #17,835, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪ok].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 46807, this pair ranks #123,609 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of til vs TOC

Shared letters: t. Private to "til": il. Private to "TOC": co.

"til" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "TOC" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "til" and "TOC" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "til" is a preposition and "TOC" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "til" or "TOC"?
"TOC" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,835 in our Spanish list, against #28,972 for "til". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "til" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "TOC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,609 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "til" and "TOC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tale vs til". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #123,609 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list