toe vs tos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#47,652
“toe” frequency rank: #48,234
“tos” frequency rank: 95886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	toe	tos
Definition	Doigt de pied, orteil.	Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.

Where the eye mixes toe and tos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. toe (CVV) and tos (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch

toe

3 ch

tos

Why the eye confuses toe with tos

A purely visual mix-up. toe (\təʊ\) and tos (\tos\) 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 a single letter - e in “toe” becomes s in “tos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95886, 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\. 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 95886, this pair ranks #888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of toe vs tos

Shared letters: ot. Private to "toe": e. Private to "tos": s.

"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "toe" and "tos" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\təʊ\ versus \tos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "toe" or "tos"?

"toe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,652 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "toe" and "tos" 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 "tos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"toe" and "tos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #888 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.