Which to use
“touch” and “toux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,080
- “touch” frequency rank
- #15,276
- “toux” frequency rank
- 28356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | touch | toux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Toucher (sens du). | Expiration spasmodique et bruyante de l’air, accompagnée d’un mouvement convulsif du larynx et de la trachée-artère. |
Where the eye mixes touch and toux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses touch with toux
A purely visual mix-up. touch (\tʌt͡ʃ\) 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 28356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
touch is recorded at frequency rank #13,080, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʌt͡ʃ\. 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 28356, this pair ranks #323,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of touch vs toux
Shared letters: otu. Private to "touch": ch. Private to "toux": x.
"touch" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "toux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "touch" and "toux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "touch" vs "toux" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "touch" 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 #323,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "touch" and "toux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toux vs tun". 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 #323,339 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.