Which to use
“told” and “tone” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,349
- “told” frequency rank
- #44,780
- “tone” frequency rank
- 90129
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | tone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prétérit de tell. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen. |
Where the eye mixes told and tone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. told (CVCC) and tone (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between told and tone
A purely visual mix-up. told (\təʊld\) and tone (\ˈtoːnə\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #45,349, classified as averb, pronounced \təʊld\. tone is at rank #44,780, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈtoːnə\.
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 90129, this pair ranks #5,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of told vs tone
Shared letters: ot. Private to "told": dl. Private to "tone": en.
"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "told" and "tone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "told" vs "tone" - which ranks higher?
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 "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "told" and "tone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tad vs told". 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 #5,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.