Word of the Day

: January 11, 2022

tome

noun TOHM

What It Means

A tome is a large or scholarly book.

// The book is a literary tome set during the French Revolution.

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tome in Context

"Paul McCartney, the iconic Beatles band member, ... has put out a tome of a memoir. Inside the creator recounts his more than eight decades of songwriting." — Anna Tingley, Reuters, 2 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?

Tome comes from Greek tomos, meaning "section" or "roll of papyrus." The Greek is related to the verb temnein, "to cut"; in ancient times, long scrolls of papyrus were divided into sections. When tome was first used in English, it referred to a book that was a part of a multi-volume work or a major part of a single-volume book.