Which to use
“Thom” is a name and “thym” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,071
- “Thom” frequency rank
- #32,217
- “thym” frequency rank
- 71288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Thom | thym |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille. | Genre de plantes de la famille des Lamiacées dont l’espèce la plus connue est le Thymus vulgaris, plante aromatique et médicinale, qui est utilisée en cuisine et pour la préparation d’infusions et de décoctions. Sauvage et très répandu dans les garrigues des rives de la méditerranée, il est aussi, pour ses vertus, cultivé dans les jardins. |
Where the eye mixes Thom and thym
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Thom and thym follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Thom vs thym
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Thom is \tom\ while thym is \tɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - o in “Thom” becomes y in “thym”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Thom is recorded at frequency rank #39,071, classified as aname, pronounced \tom\. thym is at rank #32,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ̃\.
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 71288, this pair ranks #48,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Thom vs thym
Shared letters: hmt. Private to "Thom": o. Private to "thym": y.
"Thom" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thym" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Thom" and "thym" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "Thom" or "thym"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Thom" and "thym" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Thom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thym" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,107 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Thom" and "thym" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Thom vs tos". 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 #48,107 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.