tosvstouxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tos” and “toux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
#15,276
“toux” frequency rank
63510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tos toux
Definition Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. Expiration spasmodique et bruyante de l’air, accompagnée d’un mouvement convulsif du larynx et de la trachée-artère.

Where the eye mixes tos and toux

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

3 ch
tos
4 ch
toux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and toux (\tu\) 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 63510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tos is recorded at frequency rank #48,234, classified as anoun, pronounced \tos\. toux is at rank #15,276, tagged as anoun, 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 63510, this pair ranks #81,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs toux

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tos": s. Private to "toux": ux.

"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "toux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • touxotux · touxx · toxu · ttoux · tuox

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tos" and "toux" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \tu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tos" or "toux"?
"toux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,276 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "tos" and "toux". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tos" and "toux" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list