as in books
a set of printed sheets of paper bound together between covers and forming a work of fiction or nonfiction
picked up a thick tome on the Roman Empire at a used book store
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tomes
Whitney, a formidable collector of vintage tomes and 19th- and 20th-century European painting, inherited many of the items in his rare book collection from his mother, the poet Helen Hay Whitney.
—
News Desk, Artforum, 21 Apr. 2026
This January, many such tomes on my shelves suddenly seemed to have offered all along nothing more than obfuscation, the opposite of illumination.
—Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
The canal house—formerly a biblical museum—responds in kind, with religious tomes replaced by a commanding bust of Darwin himself.
—Karen Burshtein, Time, 12 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
One of the world’s largest exhibitions of olden literature is gathering more than a hundred booksellers from across the globe to share their choicest wares — rare tomes, illustrations, maps, historical documents and random ephemera guaranteed to level-up your bookshelf and walls.
—John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2026
The philosopher Aristotle wrote tomes on morality and human behavior.
—Tara Sonenshine, Baltimore Sun, 9 Feb. 2026
Their selection of Florida-specific books, cookbooks, and coffee table tomes make the perfect present for friends and family.
—Meredith Lindemon, Southern Living, 9 Feb. 2026
The other 19% constitute freaks at the far end, who read 10 or more tomes.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 5 Jan. 2026
News Desk, Artforum, 21 Apr. 2026
This January, many such tomes on my shelves suddenly seemed to have offered all along nothing more than obfuscation, the opposite of illumination.
—Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
The canal house—formerly a biblical museum—responds in kind, with religious tomes replaced by a commanding bust of Darwin himself.
—Karen Burshtein, Time, 12 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
One of the world’s largest exhibitions of olden literature is gathering more than a hundred booksellers from across the globe to share their choicest wares — rare tomes, illustrations, maps, historical documents and random ephemera guaranteed to level-up your bookshelf and walls.
—John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2026
The philosopher Aristotle wrote tomes on morality and human behavior.
—Tara Sonenshine, Baltimore Sun, 9 Feb. 2026
Their selection of Florida-specific books, cookbooks, and coffee table tomes make the perfect present for friends and family.
—Meredith Lindemon, Southern Living, 9 Feb. 2026
The other 19% constitute freaks at the far end, who read 10 or more tomes.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 5 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tomes
books
Noun
-
Might seem like an outlier in the current array of articles and books about open marriages and polyamory, and at first glance the line of distinction between the two worlds, much like the division between blue and white tickets, seems almost old-fashioned.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Apr. 2026
-
But friends and colleagues remembered him as someone who had a deep love not only for journalism, but for sports, history, travel, books and, of course, his family.—
Michael Collins,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tomes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tomes. Accessed 28 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
