ThamesvsTomesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Thames” and “Tomes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,780
“Thames” frequency rank
#46,822
“Tomes” frequency rank
57602
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Thames Tomes
Definition A river in southern England, flowing 336 km (209 mi.) from Gloucestershire, through Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Greater London, and between Essex and Kent to the Thames Estuary and North Sea. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Letter map: Thames vs Tomes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Thames and Tomes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Thames
5 ch
Tomes

Corpus notes: Thames and Tomes

Thames and Tomes are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Thames is recorded at frequency rank #10,780, classified as aname, pronounced /tɛmz/. Tomes is at rank #46,822, tagged as aname.

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 57602, this pair ranks #118,224 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Thames vs Tomes

Shared letters: emst. Private to "Thames": ah. Private to "Tomes": o.

"Thames" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Thameshtames · tahmes · thaems · thamess · thammes · thamse · thhames · thmaes
  • Tomesotmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Thames" and "Tomes" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "Thames" or "Tomes"?
"Thames" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,780 in our English list, against #46,822 for "Tomes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Thames" vs "Tomes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Thames" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tomes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,224 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Thames" and "Tomes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tomes vs torus". 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 #118,224 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list