torivstousWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tori is a noun, tous is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tori” is a noun and “tous” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,584
“tori” frequency rank
#79
“tous” frequency rank
37663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tori tous
Definition Dans les arts martiaux japonais, celui qui exécute la prise. Masculin pluriel de tout.

Where the eye mixes tori and tous

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tori
4 ch
tous

Visual trap between tori and tous

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tori is \to.ʁi\ while tous is \tu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tori is recorded at frequency rank #37,584, classified as anoun, pronounced \to.ʁi\. tous is at rank #79, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tu\.

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 37663, this pair ranks #260,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tori vs tous

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tori": ir. Private to "tous": su.

"tori" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toriotri · toir · torri · ttori
  • tousotus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tori" and "tous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tori" is a noun and "tous" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tori" vs "tous" - which ranks higher?
"tous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #79 in our French list, against #37,584 for "tori". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tori" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tori" and "tous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tori vs turf". 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 #260,862 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list