Which to use
“toe” is a noun and “told” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,652
- “toe” frequency rank
- #45,349
- “told” frequency rank
- 93001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toe | told |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Doigt de pied, orteil. | Prétérit de tell. |
Where the eye mixes toe and told
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. toe runs 3 letters (CVV) against told's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: toe vs told
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toe is \təʊ\ while told is \təʊld\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93001, 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\. told is at rank #45,349, tagged as averb, pronounced \təʊld\.
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 93001, this pair ranks #2,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of toe vs told
Shared letters: ot. Private to "toe": e. Private to "told": dl.
"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- told ← otld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "toe" and "told" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "toe" or "told"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "toe" and "told" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "toe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "told" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toe" and "told" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs toe". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #2,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.