Which to use
“told” and “tool” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,938
- “told” frequency rank
- #29,542
- “tool” frequency rank
- 59480
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | tool |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados) | ferramenta |
Where the eye mixes told and tool
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: told vs tool
A purely visual mix-up. told (/tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]) and tool (/tu:l/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #29,938, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]. tool is at rank #29,542, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tu:l/.
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 59480, this pair ranks #8,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of told vs tool
Shared letters: lot. Private to "told": d. Private to "tool": -.
"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "tool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "told" for "tool" ever safe?
Frequency check: "told" vs "tool" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tool" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "told" and "tool" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "told vs tosa". 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 #8,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.