Which to use
“toe” and “tree” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,652
- “toe” frequency rank
- #21,799
- “tree” frequency rank
- 69451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toe | tree |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Doigt de pied, orteil. | Arbre. |
Where the eye mixes toe and tree
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. toe runs 3 letters (CVV) against tree's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: toe vs tree
A purely visual mix-up. toe (\təʊ\) and tree (\tɹiː\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69451, 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\. tree is at rank #21,799, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɹiː\.
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 69451, this pair ranks #55,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of toe vs tree
Shared letters: et. Private to "toe": o. Private to "tree": r.
"toe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "tree" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tree ← rtee · trree · ttree
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "toe" for "tree" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "toe" or "tree" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "toe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tree" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #55,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toe" and "tree" 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 #55,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.