tome vs tos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tome” and “tos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,801
“tome” frequency rank: #48,234
“tos” frequency rank: 51035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tome	tos
Definition	Division intellectuelle d’un ouvrage, correspondant ou pas avec un volume.	Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tome and tos apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

tome

3 ch

tos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tome (\tom\) and tos (\tos\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51035, 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\. tos is at rank #48,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tos\.

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 51035, this pair ranks #158,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tome vs tos

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tome": em. Private to "tos": s.

"tome" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

tome ← otme · tmoe · toem · tomme · ttome

Frequency comparison

tome#2,801

tos#48,234

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tome" and "tos" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\tom\ versus \tos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "tome" or "tos"?

"tome" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,801 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering tome vs tos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tome” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable