texvstosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tex” and “tos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,048
“tex” frequency rank
#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
71282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tex tos
Definition Unité de mesure du titrage (masse linéique) des fils et filés, équivalant à 10⁻⁶ kg/m. Son symbole est tx. Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.

Where the eye mixes tex and tos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. tex and tos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
tex
3 ch
tos

Look-alike desk: tex vs tos

A purely visual mix-up. tex (\tɛks\) and tos (\tos\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tex is recorded at frequency rank #23,048, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛks\. tos is at rank #48,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tos\.

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 71282, this pair ranks #48,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tex vs tos

Shared letters: t. Private to "tex": ex. Private to "tos": os.

"tex" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tex" and "tos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tɛks\ versus \tos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tex" or "tos" show up more?
"tex" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,048 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tex" and "tos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tex" and "tos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,138 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list