tomevstrueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tome is a noun, true is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tome” is a noun and “true” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,247
“tome” frequency rank
#393
“true” frequency rank
22640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tome true
Definition One in a series of volumes. Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

Where the eye mixes tome and true

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tome
4 ch
true

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tome is /təʊm/ while true is /tɹuː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22640, 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/. true is at rank #393, tagged as anadj, pronounced /tɹuː/.

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 22640, this pair ranks #415,099 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tome vs true

Shared letters: et. Private to "tome": mo. Private to "true": ru.

"tome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "true" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomeotme · tmoe · toem · tomme · ttome
  • truertue · treu · trrue · ttrue · ture

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tome" and "true" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tome" is a noun and "true" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tome" or "true"?
"true" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #393 in our English list, against #22,247 for "tome". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "tome" and "true". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "true" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,099 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tome" and "true" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list