Which to use
“tool” and “tos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,535
- “tool” frequency rank
- #48,234
- “tos” frequency rank
- 88769
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tool | tos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outil. | Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. |
Where the eye mixes tool and tos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tool vs tos
A purely visual mix-up. tool (\tuːl\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tool is recorded at frequency rank #40,535, classified as anoun, pronounced \tuːl\. 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 88769, this pair ranks #6,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tool vs tos
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tool": l. Private to "tos": s.
"tool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tool ← otol · tol · tolo · tooll · ttool
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tool" for "tos" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tool" or "tos"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tool" and "tos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tool" 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 #6,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tool" and "tos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". 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 #6,544 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.