ThomvstopWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Thom is a name, top is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Thom” is a name and “top” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,527
“Thom” frequency rank
#244
“top” frequency rank
22771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Thom top
Definition A surname transferred from the given name. The highest or uppermost part of something.

Letter map: Thom vs top

Shared letters muted; letters that set Thom and top apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Thom
3 ch
top

Role in the sentence - Thom and top

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Thom is aname and topanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Thom is recorded at frequency rank #22,527, classified as aname. top is at rank #244, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɒp/.

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 22771, this pair ranks #414,136 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Thom vs top

Shared letters: ot. Private to "Thom": hm. Private to "top": p.

"Thom" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "top" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Thomhtom · thhom · thmo · thomm · tohm · tthom

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Thom" and "top" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Thom" is a name and "top" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Thom" vs "top" - which ranks higher?
"top" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #244 in our English list, against #22,527 for "Thom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Thom" and "top".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Thom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "top" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #414,136 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Thom" and "top" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Thom vs toma". 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 #414,136 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