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When is a book not a book? When it’s a tome—tome being a word that has always suggested something less or more than the word book. When tome was first used in English, it referred to a book that was part of a larger, multi-volume work, which makes sense given that it comes from tomos, a Greek noun meaning “section” or “roll of papyrus” that comes in turn from the verb temnein, meaning “to cut” (in ancient times, long scrolls of papyrus were often divided into sections). While tome retains this meaning today, it usually refers instead to a book that is larger and more scholarly than average, as evidenced by some of the most common adjectives that precede it, including weighty, lengthy, massive, heavy, hefty, and academic.
Examples of tome in a Sentence
News Desk, Artforum, 9 Mar. 2026
Celebrities have long leveraged the power of being seen holding just the right tome.
—Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 9 Mar. 2026
Her first tome in the series came out in 2015 and the most recent was published in 2021.
—Raechal Shewfelt, Entertainment Weekly, 5 Mar. 2026
Some gravitate towards glossy fashion retrospectives; others prefer weighty interior design tomes or evocative travel volumes that capture a specific moment in time–the Italian coastline at the height of summer, for example.
—Hannah Coates, Vogue, 26 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for tome
Cite this Entry
“Tome.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tome. Accessed 28 Mar. 2026.
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tome
noun
