toevstolléTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,652
“toe” frequency rank
#27,264
“tollé” frequency rank
74916
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toe tollé
Definition Doigt de pied, orteil. Cri d’indignation (souvent figuratif).

Where the eye mixes toe and tollé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. toe runs 3 letters (CVV) against tollé's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
toe
5 ch
tollé

Why the eye confuses toe with tollé

A purely visual mix-up. toe (\təʊ\) and tollé (\tɔ.le\) 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 74916, 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\. tollé is at rank #27,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔ.le\.

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 74916, this pair ranks #35,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of toe vs tollé

Shared letters: ot. Private to "toe": e. Private to "tollé": lé.

"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "tollé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "toe" and "tollé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\təʊ\ versus \tɔ.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "toe" or "tollé"?
"tollé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,264 in our French list, against #47,652 for "toe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "toe" and "tollé" 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 "tollé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toe" and "tollé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs toe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #35,653 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