Tom is a bluish-grey anthropormorphic cat with white colors on his belly, mouth hands, feet & tail. Tom is usually defeated (or very rarely, killed) with Jerry getting the best of him in the end, although there are some stories where he outwits, defeats, and gets the best of Jerry. As a slapstick cartoon character, Tom has a superhuman level of elasticity.

However, over the years (since the episode Dog Trouble), he has become almost completely bipedal and has superhuman level of intelligence. For example, in his debut, he was quadrupedal and had normal cat intelligence. Tom's personality has changed remarkably over the years, especially after the first episodes. Multiple times, the story will start with him having nothing against Jerry, and is merely chasing him out of fear of receiving abuse at the hands of his owner if he doesn't do his job as a cat. However, Tom is shown to get along with Jerry, let alone bonding secretly with each other in terms of their friendship in reality over a mutual sentiment towards an unpleasant experience. Tom very rarely sets out to eat Jerry, but only to hurt or compete with him, going to great lengths in order to just strategically taunt Jerry (even as revenge), rather than the stereotype of a predatory cat and mouse pairing. He is continuously after Jerry, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to him rather than Jerry. His only notable vocal sounds outside of this are his various screams whenever he is subject to pain or panic. He is very rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as the Tom and Jerry Tales episode ' League of Cats') and Tom and Jerry: The Movie. His full name Tom Cat is based on the word 'tomcat', a phrase which refers to male cats. 3 Anchors Aweigh and Dangerous When Wet.

Tom jerry cartoon