Which to use
“tome” is a noun and “tone” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,801
- “tome” frequency rank
- #44,780
- “tone” frequency rank
- 47581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tome | tone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Division intellectuelle d’un ouvrage, correspondant ou pas avec un volume. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen. |
Where the eye mixes tome and tone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tome and tone follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tome vs tone
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tome is \tom\ while tone is \ˈtoːnə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “tome” becomes n in “tone”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tome is recorded at frequency rank #2,801, classified as anoun, pronounced \tom\. tone is at rank #44,780, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈtoːnə\.
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 47581, this pair ranks #185,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tome vs tone
Shared letters: eot. Private to "tome": m. Private to "tone": n.
"tome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tome" for "tone" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tome" or "tone" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #185,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tome" and "tone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tone vs tun". 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 #185,833 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.