Which to use
“Thom” is a name and “thyme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,527
- “Thom” frequency rank
- #26,628
- “thyme” frequency rank
- 49155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Thom | thyme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname transferred from the given name. | Any plant of the labiate genus Thymus, such as garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris), a warm, pungent aromatic, that is much used to give a relish to seasoning and soups. |
Letter map: Thom vs thyme
Shared letters muted; letters that set Thom and thyme apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for Thom / thyme
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Thom is aname and thymeanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Thom is recorded at frequency rank #22,527, classified as aname. thyme is at rank #26,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taɪm/.
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 49155, this pair ranks #186,307 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Thom vs thyme
Shared letters: hmt. Private to "Thom": o. Private to "thyme": ey.
"Thom" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thyme" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Thom" and "thyme" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "Thom" or "thyme" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Thom" and "thyme".
- Full dictionary entry for "Thom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thyme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,307 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Thom" and "thyme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thyme vs thymus". 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 #186,307 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.