Which to use
“tough” is an adjective and “truth” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,229
- “tough” frequency rank
- #36,626
- “truth” frequency rank
- 80855
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tough | truth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fort, résistant. | Vérité. |
Where the eye mixes tough and truth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tough vs truth
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tough is \tɔf\ while truth is \tɹuːθ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80855, 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\. truth is at rank #36,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɹuːθ\.
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 80855, this pair ranks #19,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tough vs truth
Shared letters: htu. Private to "tough": go. Private to "truth": r.
"tough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "truth" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tough" for "truth" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tough" or "truth" show up more?
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 "tough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "truth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tough" and "truth" 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 #19,976 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.