toevstoileWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,652
“toe” frequency rank
#3,299
“toile” frequency rank
50951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toe toile
Definition Doigt de pied, orteil. Tissu d'armure simple, de fils de lin, de chanvre, de coton, etc.

Where the eye mixes toe and toile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
toe
5 ch
toile

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. toe (\təʊ\) and toile (\twal\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toe is recorded at frequency rank #47,652, classified as anoun, pronounced \təʊ\. toile is at rank #3,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced \twal\.

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 50951, this pair ranks #158,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toe vs toile

Shared letters: eot. Private to "toe": -. Private to "toile": il.

"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "toile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toileotile · tiole · toiel · toille · tolie · ttoile

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "toe" and "toile" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\təʊ\ versus \twal\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "toe" or "toile"?
"toile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,299 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list