Which to use
“Tomes” is a name and “towed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,822
- “Tomes” frequency rank
- #17,737
- “towed” frequency rank
- 64559
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Tomes | towed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname originating as a patronymic. | simple past and past participle of tow |
Letter map: Tomes vs towed
Shared letters muted; letters that set Tomes and towed apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Tomes and towed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - Tomes and towed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Tomes is aname and towedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Tomes is recorded at frequency rank #46,822, classified as aname. 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 64559, this pair ranks #77,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Tomes vs towed
Shared letters: eot. Private to "Tomes": ms. Private to "towed": dw.
"Tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "towed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Tomes" and "towed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "Tomes" vs "towed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "Tomes" and "towed". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Tomes" 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 #77,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Tomes" and "towed" 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 #77,109 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.