tirévstoeConfusable pair

Quick tell: tiré is a adjective, toe is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tiré” is an adjective and “toe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,548
“tiré” frequency rank
#47,652
“toe” frequency rank
50200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tiré toe
Definition Abattu, amaigri, qui témoigne d’usure, de fatigue (en parlant du visage, des traits). Doigt de pied, orteil.

Where the eye mixes tiré and toe

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

4 ch
tiré
3 ch
toe

Visual trap between tiré and toe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tiré is \ti.ʁe\ while toe is \təʊ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tiré is recorded at frequency rank #2,548, classified as anadj, pronounced \ti.ʁe\. toe is at rank #47,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \təʊ\.

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 50200, this pair ranks #164,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tiré vs toe

Shared letters: t. Private to "tiré": iré. Private to "toe": eo.

"tiré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tiré" for "toe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tiré" is an adjective and "toe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tiré" or "toe"?
"tiré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,548 in our French list, against #47,652 for "toe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "tiré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tiré" and "toe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs toe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #164,510 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