Which to use
“Tokio” and “Tokyo” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,918
- “Tokio” frequency rank
- #4,898
- “Tokyo” frequency rank
- 50816
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Tokio | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ancienne orthographe de Tokyo (ville du Japon). | Capitale et métropole du Japon, administrativement et législativement composée de 23 arrondissements, chacun desquels a un maire et un conseil municipal. |
Same sound, different letters: Tokio vs Tokyo
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: Tokio vs Tokyo
This is the hard kind. Tokio and Tokyo are pronounced identically (\to.kjo\) and both work as aname. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - i in “Tokio” becomes y in “Tokyo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Tokio is recorded at frequency rank #45,918, classified as aname, pronounced \to.kjo\. Tokyo is at rank #4,898, tagged as aname, pronounced \to.kjo\.
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 50816, this pair ranks #159,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Tokio vs Tokyo
Shared letters: kot. Private to "Tokio": i. Private to "Tokyo": y.
"Tokio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "Tokyo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Tokio" and "Tokyo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "Tokio" or "Tokyo" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "Tokio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Tokyo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #159,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Tokio" and "Tokyo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "token vs Tokio". 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 #159,720 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.