toutvstouxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tout is a adjective, toux is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48
“tout” frequency rank
#15,276
“toux” frequency rank
15324
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tout toux
Definition 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. Expiration spasmodique et bruyante de l’air, accompagnée d’un mouvement convulsif du larynx et de la trachée-artère.

Same sound, different letters: tout vs toux

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

4 ch
tout
4 ch
toux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tout and toux carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tu\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - t in “tout” becomes x in “toux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15324, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tout is recorded at frequency rank #48, classified as anadj, pronounced \tu\. 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 15324, this pair ranks #392,843 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tout vs toux

Shared letters: otu. Private to "tout": -. Private to "toux": x.

"tout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "toux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toutotut · totu · toutt · ttout · tuot
  • touxotux · touxx · toxu · ttoux · tuox

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tout" and "toux" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tout" is an adjective and "toux" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tout" or "toux"?
"tout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48 in our French list, against #15,276 for "toux". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tout" 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 #392,843 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tout" 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

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