tome

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /toʊm/ UK /təʊm/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like tom /ɑ/ vs /oʊ/

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a large, heavy, or scholarly book

He pulled a dusty tome from the highest shelf.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a large, heavy, or... volume book work treatise opus

Word family

Related forms tomic

Etymology

From French tome, from Latin tomus ('a section, volume'), from Ancient Greek tomos ('a piece cut off, a volume'), from temnein ('to cut').

tomus Latin τόμος Ancient Greek τέμνειν Ancient Greek

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Describing Qualities

# tome

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** toʊm
**IPA (UK):** təʊm

## Meanings
1. a large, heavy, or scholarly book

## Examples
- He pulled a dusty tome from the highest shelf.

## Synonyms
- volume
- book
- work
- treatise
- opus

## Related Forms
- tomic

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: tomus
- Root: τόμος
- Root: τέμνειν

## Etymology
From French tome, from Latin tomus ('a section, volume'), from Ancient Greek tomos ('a piece cut off, a volume'), from temnein ('to cut').

## AI Etymology
Tome comes from French tome, from Latin tomus ('a section, volume'), from Ancient Greek tomos ('a piece cut off, a volume'), from temnein ('to cut'). The historical chain includes Latin tomus, Ancient Greek τόμος, and Ancient Greek τέμνειν. The quoted older senses, "a section, volume", "a piece cut off, a volume", and "to cut", supply the semantic anchors for tome. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word tome carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a large, heavy, or scholarly book". Related English forms include tomic. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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tome

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