Which to use
“tough” and “tout” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,229
- “tough” frequency rank
- #48
- “tout” frequency rank
- 44277
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tough | tout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fort, résistant. | Qui comprend l’intégrité, l’entièreté, la totalité d’une chose considérée par rapport au nombre, à l’étendue ou à l’intensité de l’énergie. |
Where the eye mixes tough and tout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between tough and tout
A purely visual mix-up. tough (\tɔf\) and tout (\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 44277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tough is recorded at frequency rank #44,229, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɔf\. tout is at rank #48, 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 44277, this pair ranks #211,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tough vs tout
Shared letters: otu. Private to "tough": gh. Private to "tout": -.
"tough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "tout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tough" for "tout" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tough" or "tout"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tough" and "tout" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #211,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tough" and "tout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thug vs tough". 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 #211,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.