Which to use
“toc” is an onomatopoeia and “tos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,684
- “toc” frequency rank
- #48,234
- “tos” frequency rank
- 60918
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toc | tos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Onomatopée servant à exprimer un bruit sec, un choc. | Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. |
Where the eye mixes toc and tos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between toc and tos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toc is \tɔk\ while tos is \tos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “toc” becomes s in “tos”, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
toc is recorded at frequency rank #12,684, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \tɔk\. 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 60918, this pair ranks #95,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of toc vs tos
Shared letters: ot. Private to "toc": c. Private to "tos": s.
"toc" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "toc" for "tos" ever safe?
Which is more common, "toc" or "tos"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "toc" and "tos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "toc" 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 #95,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toc" and "tos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #95,091 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.