TomsvsTorWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Toms” and “Tor” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,507
“Toms” frequency rank
#1,373
“Tor” frequency rank
42880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Toms Tor
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Tom großer Zugang, großer Durchgang; bewegliches Bauteil, mit dem dieser Zugang geöffnet und geschlossen werden kann; Bauwerk, das einen Durchgang umschließt, meist als Bestandteil eines Eigennamens

Where the eye mixes Toms and Tor

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Toms
3 ch
Tor

Visual trap between Toms and Tor

A purely visual mix-up. Toms ([tɔms]) and Tor ([toːɐ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Toms is recorded at frequency rank #41,507, classified as anoun, pronounced [tɔms]. Tor is at rank #1,373, tagged as anoun, pronounced [toːɐ̯].

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 42880, this pair ranks #1,435,565 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Toms vs Tor

Shared letters: ot. Private to "Toms": ms. Private to "Tor": r.

"Toms" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Tor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tomsotms · tmos · tomms · tomss · tosm · ttoms

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Toms" for "Tor" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([tɔms] versus [toːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Toms" or "Tor" show up more?
"Tor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,373 in our German list, against #41,507 for "Toms". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Toms" and "Tor" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Toms" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,435,565 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Toms" and "Tor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Toms vs Tons". 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 #1,435,565 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