tome

1 of 2

noun

ˈtōm 

1

: book

especially : a large or scholarly book

2

: a volume forming part of a larger work

-tome

2 of 2

noun combining form

1

: part : segment

myotome

2

: cutting instrument

microtome

Synonyms

Noun

• book
• volume

Examples of tome in a Sentence

Noun

a long tome on European history

picked up a thick tome on the Roman Empire at a used book store

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Target’s good news is the November 29 launch of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Book at nearly 2,000 stores — prompting shoppers outside a Chicago store to line up at 5 AM to buy her $39.99 tome, according to Reuters. —Peter Cohan, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2024

The author of the original French tome, who went by the pen name Max Valentin to avoid unwanted inquiries from treasure seekers, died in 2009. —Martin Lerma, Robb Report, 2 Nov. 2024

Couture shoots, fittings and magazine covers are among the 140-plus images and film stills in the tome. —Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 1 Nov. 2024

In the early 1900s, the conservationist and anthropologist Madison Grant, who helped establish Glacier National Park and the Bronx Zoo, wrote pseudoscientific tomes about the coming extinction of white people. —Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 19 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin tomus, from Greek tomos section, roll of papyrus, tome, from temnein to cut; akin to Middle Irish tamnaid he lops, Polish ciąć to cut, and perhaps to Latin tondēre to shear

Noun combining form

Greek tomos

First Known Use

Noun

1519, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

tome

noun

ˈtōm 

: a big thick book