tomvstoméWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tom is a noun, tomé is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tom” is a noun and “tomé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,262
“tom” frequency rank
#4,602
“tomé” frequency rank
5864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tom tomé
Definition qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.: primeira pessoa do singular no pretérito do indicativo do verbo tomar; tomei

Letter map: tom vs tomé

Shared letters muted; letters that set tom and tomé apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
tom
4 ch
tomé

Part-of-speech tell for tom / tomé

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tom is anoun and toméaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tom” sits inside “tomé”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tom is recorded at frequency rank #1,262, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtõ/. tomé is at rank #4,602, tagged as averb.

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 5864, this pair ranks #68,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tom vs tomé

Shared letters: mot. Private to "tom": -. Private to "tomé": é.

"tom" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tomé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tom" for "tomé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tom" is a noun and "tomé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tom" or "tomé" show up more?
"tom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,262 in our Portuguese list, against #4,602 for "tomé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "tom" vs "tomé" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tomé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tom" and "tomé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tomé vs tosa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list