ballsvsbollConfusable pair

Which to use

“balls” and “boll” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,255
“balls” frequency rank
#23,868
“boll” frequency rank
48123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balls boll
Definition Plural des Substantivs ball die Kornhülse, die Spreu

Letter map: balls vs boll

Shared letters muted; letters that set balls and boll apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
balls
4 ch
boll

Pair insight - balls / boll

balls and boll are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balls is recorded at frequency rank #24,255, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɔːlz]. boll is at rank #23,868, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48123, this pair ranks #1,260,010 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balls vs boll

Shared letters: bl. Private to "balls": as. Private to "boll": o.

"balls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "boll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ballsablls · ballss · bals · balsl · bballs · blals
  • bollbboll · blol · bol · obll

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balls" and "boll" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "balls" vs "boll" - which ranks higher?
"boll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,868 in our German list, against #24,255 for "balls". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "balls" vs "boll" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,260,010 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balls" and "boll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boll vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,260,010 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list