told

\təʊld\

/\təʊld\/ verb

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

The verdict

“told” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #45,349. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#45,349
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Prétérit de tell.

Corpus desk

Index FR-told · told · French

told · rank #45,349 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #45,349
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH Tibre

Nearest frequency peer: Tibre (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « told »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « told » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

told vs ton
50% similar
told vs top
50% similar
told vs tom
50% similar

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

Key facts for told
PropertyValue
Headwordtold
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\təʊld\
Letters4
Frequency rank#45,349
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « told »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).toldse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Tibre » (#45,348), « tonic » (#45,350), « Thrombose » (#45,347). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « told » est au #45,349. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around told (IPA \təʊld\), averb. Corpus frequency is #45,349 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for told, with forms such as "otld", "tlod", and "todl". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ton", "top", "tom", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is told, spelled T-O-L-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Prétérit de tell.
  2. 2
    Participe passé de tell.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Psychologists recruited avid fans of Manchester United. Fans wrote about what ManU meant to them, and were told they would record a short video tribute to their team in another building.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • otld
  • tlod
  • todl
  • toldd
  • tolld
  • ttold

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of told - 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.

otld2tlod2todl2toldd1tolld1ttold1
Edit distance from "told"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "told"?
"told" is spelled T-O-L-D. The IPA pronunciation is \təʊld\.
What does "told" mean?
As a verb, "told" means: Prétérit de tell.
What words are commonly confused with "told"?
"told" is commonly confused with "ton", "top", "tom". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "told"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "told" is \təʊld\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "told" come from?
"told" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

tall#45,343vola#45,375whip#45,380sick#45,317

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

seille6 variantsrazzia6 variantspuck6 variantspayen6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list