Which to use
“tobe” and “tome” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,100
- “tobe” frequency rank
- #22,247
- “tome” frequency rank
- 71347
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tobe | tome |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A cotton garment worn in parts of northern Africa. | One in a series of volumes. |
Where the eye mixes tobe and tome
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tobe and tome follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tobe vs tome
A purely visual mix-up. tobe (/təʊb/) and tome (/təʊm/) 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 a single letter - b in “tobe” becomes m in “tome”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tobe is recorded at frequency rank #49,100, classified as anoun, pronounced /təʊb/. tome is at rank #22,247, tagged as anoun, pronounced /təʊm/.
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 71347, this pair ranks #47,088 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tobe vs tome
Shared letters: eot. Private to "tobe": b. Private to "tome": m.
"tobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tobe" and "tome" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tobe" vs "tome" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tome" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,088 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tobe" and "tome" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tobe vs Toth". 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 #47,088 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.