tom
/ˈtõ/
The verdict
“tom” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #1,262 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,262
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.:
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tom |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtõ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #1,262 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tom” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for tom is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtõ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,262 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for tom in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular Portuguese conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tu", "ty", "tua", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Portuguese form is tom, spelled T-O-M.
Definition
- 1qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.:
- 2qualidade ou característica de um som
- 3uma qualidade particular, um modo de soar, uma modulação ou uma intonação de voz como forma expressiva para indicar algum significado, sentimento, etc.:
- 4um sotaque peculiar a uma pessoa, localidade, grupo
- 5característica "musical" de certas línguas, como por exemplo o chinês
- 6um som musical de característica definida
- 7um intervalo equivalente a dois semitons
- 8tom-tom, um tipo de instrumento de percussão
- 9característica de uma cor com referência ao grau de absorção de luz:
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tom”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is T-O-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtõ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tu” - see the side-by-side comparison. tom vs tu
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.