tomb
/tum/noun, verb
tomb is spelled T-O-M-B: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.8 times per million words in written English, the 8,417th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tomb means “A small building, or a room within one, for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door.…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tomb is tombs.
How many letters and syllables are in tomb?
| Letters | 4: T-O-M-B |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.8 times per million words; the 8,417th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tomb?
Tomb appears 7.8 times per million words in written English, the 8,417th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tomb?
- UK /tuːm/
- British /tʉwm/
- US /tum/
Tomb has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tomb.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tomb?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tomb from its last stressed vowel (/um/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tomb
- tombs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tombing participle, present
- tombed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tomb mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A small building, or a room within one, for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed.
- 2
A pit in which the dead body of a human being is deposited.
- 3
One who keeps secrets.
- 4
Death (literary)
I'll go to the tomb unrepentant.
verb
- 1
To bury.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tomb in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small building or vault for the remains of the dead:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tomb come from?
From Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”). Displaced native Old English þrūh. The verb is from Middle English tomben.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).