tomboyvsTombsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,738
“tomboy” frequency rank
#18,718
“Tombs” frequency rank
56456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomboy Tombs
Definition A girl who behaves in a typically boyish manner. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Letter map: tomboy vs Tombs

Shared letters muted; letters that set tomboy and Tombs apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. tomboy runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against Tombs's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tomboy
5 ch
Tombs

Part-of-speech tell for tomboy / Tombs

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tomboy is anoun and Tombsaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomboy is recorded at frequency rank #37,738, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɒm.bɔɪ/. Tombs is at rank #18,718, 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 56456, this pair ranks #126,168 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tomboy vs Tombs

Shared letters: bmot. Private to "tomboy": y. Private to "Tombs": s.

"tomboy" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Tombs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomboy ← otmboy · tmoboy · tobmoy · tombboy · tomboyy · tombyo · tommboy · tomoby
  • Tombs ← otmbs · tmobs · tobms · tombbs · tombss · tommbs · tomsb · ttombs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomboy" for "Tombs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tomboy" is a noun and "Tombs" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tomboy" or "Tombs"?
"Tombs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,718 in our English list, against #37,738 for "tomboy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "tomboy" vs "Tombs" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomboy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tombs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,168 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomboy" and "Tombs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tombs 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 #126,168 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