bollvsBoxTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,868
“boll” frequency rank
#3,642
“Box” frequency rank
27510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boll Box
Definition die Kornhülse, die Spreu Behältnis, Verpackung, meistens in der Form eines Quaders

Letter map: boll vs Box

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

4 ch
boll
3 ch
Box

Corpus notes: boll and Box

boll and Box 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 27510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boll is recorded at frequency rank #23,868, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Box is at rank #3,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɔks].

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 27510, this pair ranks #1,800,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of boll vs Box

Shared letters: bo. Private to "boll": l. Private to "Box": x.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bollbboll · blol · bol · obll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boll" for "Box" 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.
In ordinary German text, does "boll" or "Box" show up more?
"Box" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,642 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "boll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Box" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,800,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boll" and "Box" 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 #1,800,593 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