tomavstookConfusable pair

Quick tell: toma is a noun, took is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“toma” is a noun and “took” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,101
“toma” frequency rank
#292
“took” frequency rank
49393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toma took
Definition A semi-hard Italian cheese from Piedmont simple past of take

Letter map: toma vs took

Shared letters muted; letters that set toma and took apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
toma
4 ch
took

Part-of-speech tell for toma / took

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: toma is anoun and tookaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toma is recorded at frequency rank #49,101, classified as anoun. took is at rank #292, tagged as averb, pronounced /tʊk/.

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 49393, this pair ranks #184,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toma vs took

Shared letters: ot. Private to "toma": am. Private to "took": k.

"toma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "took" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomaotma · tmoa · toam · tomma · ttoma
  • tookotok · toko · tookk · ttook

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "toma" for "took" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "toma" is a noun and "took" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "toma" vs "took" - which ranks higher?
"took" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our English list, against #49,101 for "toma". 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 "toma" and "took".

  • Full dictionary entry for "toma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "took" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toma" and "took" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toma 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 #184,055 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