billvsbollConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,498
“bill” frequency rank
#23,868
“boll” frequency rank
28366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bill boll
Definition Rechnung, Abrechnung die Kornhülse, die Spreu

Letter map: bill vs boll

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

4 ch
bill
4 ch
boll

Pair insight - bill / boll

bill 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 a single letter - i in “bill” becomes o in “boll”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bill is recorded at frequency rank #4,498, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɪl]. 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 28366, this pair ranks #1,786,067 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bill vs boll

Shared letters: bl. Private to "bill": i. Private to "boll": o.

"bill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "boll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • billbbill · bil · blil · ibll
  • bollbboll · blol · bol · obll

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bill" and "boll" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - i in “bill” becomes o in “boll”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "bill" or "boll" show up more?
"bill" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,498 in our German list, against #23,868 for "boll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bill" and "boll".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bill" 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 #1,786,067 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bill" 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 #1,786,067 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