Tom cat

noun

"tom-cat" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Tom cat” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Archaic form of tomcat.

Corpus desk

Index EN-tom-cat · Tom cat · English

Tom cat · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for Tom cat
PropertyValue
HeadwordTom cat
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Tom cat” in English

Tom catsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Tom cat is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Archaic form of tomcat.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Tom cat, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is Tom cat, spelled T-O-M- -C-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Archaic form of tomcat.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Tom cat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There was but one a real maid, / And ſhe ſo very ugly, that / You’d take her for a great Tom cat, / And therefore ſhe could never hire / A man that would attempt to try her.
  2. “How you talk!” / “Talk, miss! It’s enough to make a Tom cat talk French grammar, only to see how she tosses her head,” replied the handmaid.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Tom cat"?
"Tom cat" is spelled T-O-M- -C-A-T.
What does "Tom cat" mean?
As a noun, "Tom cat" means: Archaic form of tomcat.
What language does "Tom cat" come from?
"Tom cat" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list