bollvsbosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,868
“boll” frequency rank
#29,972
“bos” frequency rank
53840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boll bos
Definition die Kornhülse, die Spreu Rind; Ochse, Stier

Letter map: boll vs bos

Shared letters muted; letters that set boll and bos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
boll
3 ch
bos

Corpus notes: boll and bos

boll and bos 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 53840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boll is recorded at frequency rank #23,868, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. bos is at rank #29,972, 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 53840, this pair ranks #1,042,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of boll vs bos

Shared letters: bo. Private to "boll": l. Private to "bos": s.

"boll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bollbboll · blol · bol · obll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boll" for "bos" ever safe?
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: "boll" vs "bos" - which ranks higher?
"boll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,868 in our German list, against #29,972 for "bos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "boll" and "bos". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "boll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,042,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boll" and "bos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bos 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 #1,042,280 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