tomów

Tomów is the genitive plural form of the Polish noun tom, which denotes a single volume or tome of a book, especially when it is part of a multi‑volume work. The base forms are tom (singular) and tomy (nominative plural). The genitive plural tomów is used in contexts where the noun is governed by a genitive case, such as after numerals or certain prepositions.

In everyday usage, tom refers to one volume within a series or set. When counting or describing quantities, Polish uses different forms depending on the numeral: for example, dwa tomy means two volumes (nominative plural), while pięć tomów means five volumes (genitive plural). In catalogues and bibliographies, the term appears on spines and entries as tom I, tom II, and so on, indicating the sequence of volumes.

Etymology traces tom to Latin tomus, which itself comes from the Greek tomos, both meaning a section or volume. The Polish form tomów reflects the standard Slavic pattern for forming the genitive plural of masculine inanimate nouns.

Tomów also appears in phrases indicating a quantity of volumes within a work, such as dwunawale tomów, or in descriptions like “seria składa się z kilku tomów.” It is primarily a bibliographic and literary term, used especially in discussions of multi-volume editions, scholarly editions, and library classifications.

See also: tom (the base noun referring to a volume), tome (English cognate), bibliographic conventions for volumes.