Which to use
“têtes” and “tomes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,048
- “têtes” frequency rank
- #11,493
- “tomes” frequency rank
- 14541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | têtes | tomes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de tête. | Pluriel de tome. |
Where the eye mixes têtes and tomes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. têtes and tomes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between têtes and tomes
A purely visual mix-up. têtes (\tɛːt\) and tomes (\tɔm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
têtes is recorded at frequency rank #3,048, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛːt\. tomes is at rank #11,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔm\.
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 14541, this pair ranks #396,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of têtes vs tomes
Shared letters: est. Private to "têtes": ê. Private to "tomes": mo.
"têtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tomes ← otmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "têtes" for "tomes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "têtes" vs "tomes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "têtes" and "tomes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "têtes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tomes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "têtes" and "tomes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tomes vs trônes". 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 #396,224 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.