tom

/ˈtõ/

//ˈtõ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“tom” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,262) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,262
frequency rank, Portuguese
917
“T” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.:

Corpus desk

Index PT-tom · tom · Portuguese

tom · rank #1,262 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,262
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 917
  • PHOTO-FINISH tenham

Nearest frequency peer: tenham (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “tom”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “tom” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

tom vs tu
33% similar
tom vs ty
33% similar
tom vs tua
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for tom
PropertyValue
Headwordtom
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈtõ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,262
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “tom”

Da esquerda para a direita: o pouco que carrega a fala diária, depois a cauda longa quase invisível.tomcai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “tenham” (#1,261), “trazer” (#1,263), “telefone” (#1,260). Entre 917 lemas com “T”, “tom” fica em #1,262. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for tom is neighbouring look-alikes ("tu", "ty", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈtõ/. Frequency #1,262 among 917 “T” headwords. 9 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

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

  1. 1
    qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.:
  2. 2
    qualidade ou característica de um som
  3. 3
    uma qualidade particular, um modo de soar, uma modulação ou uma intonação de voz como forma expressiva para indicar algum significado, sentimento, etc.:
  4. 4
    um sotaque peculiar a uma pessoa, localidade, grupo
  5. 5
    característica "musical" de certas línguas, como por exemplo o chinês
  6. 6
    um som musical de característica definida
  7. 7
    um intervalo equivalente a dois semitons
  8. 8
    tom-tom, um tipo de instrumento de percussão
  9. 9
    característica de uma cor com referência ao grau de absorção de luz:

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how tom appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ela possui um tom agudo de voz que me desagrada.
  2. Pode parar com esse tom de comando pois nós não estamos mais no Exército!

Synonyms

segunda

This word in other languages

tone(English)tono(Español)ton(Français)Ton(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "tom"?
"tom" is spelled T-O-M. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈtõ/.
What does "tom" mean?
As a noun, "tom" means: qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.:
What words are commonly confused with "tom"?
"tom" is commonly confused with "tu", "ty", "tua". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tom"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tom" is /ˈtõ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tom" come from?
"tom" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tom", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

one#1,219ato#1,326olá#1,198new#1,338

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list