Toe

How to spell toe

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce toe

What does toe mean?

1. nounOne of the five digits at the end of the human foot.
2. verbTo touch, reach, or position something with the toes, as in the phrase to toe the line.

Toe in a sentence

• noun

  She stubbed her big toe on the bed frame.

• verb

  New employees are expected to toe the line on safety rules.

• noun

  A hole in the sock had worn through near the toe.

• verb

  The sprinter had to toe the mark before the starter's gun.

Where does toe come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English ta, which meant the digit at the end of the foot, and which traces further back to a Proto-Germanic root shared with the Dutch teen and the German Zehe. In the very oldest English forms the plural appeared as tan, but over the medieval period it was regularised to the modern toes. The spelling settled with a final silent 'e' that lengthens the vowel, giving the 'oh' sound rather than the short 'o' of 'tot'. The same body-part sense extended naturally to the toe of a shoe, the toe of a sock, and the toe of a tool or club. Because it sounds exactly like 'tow' (to pull or drag), the two are a frequent spelling mix-up, even though they are wholly unrelated in origin.

How the word is built

• toe (single morpheme, from Old English ta: digit of the foot)

Words that sound like toe

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• tow: To pull a vehicle, boat, or load along behind another using a rope or chain.