tome

[tohm]

See more synonyms for tome on Thesaurus.com

noun

a book, especially a very heavy, large, or learned book.
a volume forming a part of a larger work.

Origin of tome

1510–20; < French < Latin tomus < Greek tómos slice, piece, roll of paper, book, akin to témnein to cut

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for tomes

novel, publication, textbook, opus, classic, work, writing, volume, title, schoolbook

Examples from the Web for tomes

Contemporary Examples of tomes

To be sure, “the guilt of the West is beyond anything that has been recorded in films and tomes and painting,” he said.
Wole Soyinka's Nobel Nominees: The Malala Heroines
October 10, 2013

Historical Examples of tomes

Indeed, the Sheikh is right; most of these tomes are good for nothing else.
The Book of Khalid
Ameen Rihani
Rises, removes a small screen to reveal a towering pile of tomes.
We're Friends, Now
Henry Hasse
"And the client too," said Tomes aloud; but nobody had heard what I had said.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
The room is pitch-dark always, and it is full of tables and tomes.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, April 14, 1920
Various
These are the spontaneous lenders, who insist that you shall borrow their tomes.
The Library
Andrew Lang

British Dictionary definitions for tomes

tome

noun

a large weighty book
one of the several volumes of a work

Word Origin for tome

C16: from French, from Latin tomus section of larger work, from Greek tomos a slice, from temnein to cut; related to Latin tondēre to shear

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tomes

tome

1510s, from Middle French tome, from Latin tomus "section of a book, tome," from Greek tomos "volume, section of a book," originally "section, piece cut off," from temnein "to cut," from PIE *tom-/*tem- "to cut" (cf. second element in Latin aestimare "to value, appraise," Old Church Slavonic tina "to cleave, split," Middle Irish tamnaim "I cut off," Welsh tam "morsel"). Originally "a single volume of a multi-volume work;" sense of "a large book" is attested from 1570s.