Which to use
“toe” and “tomes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,652
- “toe” frequency rank
- #11,493
- “tomes” frequency rank
- 59145
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toe | tomes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Doigt de pied, orteil. | Pluriel de tome. |
Where the eye mixes toe and tomes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. toe runs 3 letters (CVV) against tomes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between toe and tomes
A purely visual mix-up. toe (\təʊ\) and tomes (\tɔm\) 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 59145, 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\. tomes is at rank #11,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔm\.
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 59145, this pair ranks #104,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of toe vs tomes
Shared letters: eot. Private to "toe": -. Private to "tomes": ms.
"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tomes ← otmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "toe" for "tomes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "toe" vs "tomes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "toe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tomes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toe" and "tomes" 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 #104,807 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.