TomesvstoreWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Tomes is a name, tore is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Tomes” is a name and “tore” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,822
“Tomes” frequency rank
#11,139
“tore” frequency rank
57961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tomes tore
Definition A surname originating as a patronymic. Hard, difficult; wearisome, tedious.

Letter map: Tomes vs tore

Shared letters muted; letters that set Tomes and tore apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Tomes
4 ch
tore

Grammar separator: Tomes vs tore

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Tomes is aname and toreanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tomes is recorded at frequency rank #46,822, classified as aname. tore is at rank #11,139, tagged as anadj, pronounced /tɔː(ɹ)/.

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 57961, this pair ranks #115,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Tomes vs tore

Shared letters: eot. Private to "Tomes": ms. Private to "tore": r.

"Tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tomesotmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes
  • toreotre · toer · torre · troe · ttore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Tomes" for "tore" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tomes" is a name and "tore" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Tomes" or "tore" show up more?
"tore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,139 in our English list, against #46,822 for "Tomes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Tomes" and "tore".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tomes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tomes" and "tore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tomes 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 #115,765 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