titvstomTell them apart

Quick tell: tit is a noun, tom is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,882
“tit” frequency rank
#2,521
“tom” frequency rank
31403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tit tom
Definition Meise ohne Inhalt; leer

Where the eye mixes tit and tom

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
tit
3 ch
tom

Look-alike desk: tit vs tom

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tit is [ˈtɪt] while tom is [tum]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tit is recorded at frequency rank #28,882, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɪt]. tom is at rank #2,521, tagged as anadj, pronounced [tum].

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 31403, this pair ranks #1,728,809 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tit vs tom

Shared letters: t. Private to "tit": i. Private to "tom": mo.

"tit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tit" and "tom" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tit" is a noun and "tom" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "tit" or "tom" show up more?
"tom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,521 in our German list, against #28,882 for "tit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "tit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,728,809 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tit" and "tom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tine vs tit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,728,809 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list