Which to use
“tome” is a noun and “towed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,247
- “tome” frequency rank
- #17,737
- “towed” frequency rank
- 39984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tome | towed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | One in a series of volumes. | simple past and past participle of tow |
Where the eye mixes tome and towed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tome runs 4 letters (CVCV) against towed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between tome and towed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tome is /təʊm/ while towed is /toʊd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tome is recorded at frequency rank #22,247, classified as anoun, pronounced /təʊm/. towed is at rank #17,737, tagged as averb, pronounced /toʊd/.
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 39984, this pair ranks #271,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tome vs towed
Shared letters: eot. Private to "tome": m. Private to "towed": dw.
"tome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "towed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tome" for "towed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tome" vs "towed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tome" and "towed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "towed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tome" and "towed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tome 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 #271,699 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.