Which to use
“bailey” is a noun and “boiled” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,439
- “bailey” frequency rank
- #11,510
- “boiled” frequency rank
- 17949
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bailey | boiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The outer wall of a feudal castle. | simple past and past participle of boil |
Where the eye mixes bailey and boiled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bailey vs boiled
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bailey is /ˈbeɪli/ while boiled is /bɔɪld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bailey is recorded at frequency rank #6,439, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbeɪli/. boiled is at rank #11,510, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɔɪld/.
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 17949, this pair ranks #448,119 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bailey vs boiled
Shared letters: beil. Private to "bailey": ay. Private to "boiled": do.
"bailey" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV · "boiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bailey" for "boiled" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bailey" or "boiled" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bailey" and "boiled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bailey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boiled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #448,119 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bailey" and "boiled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailey vs bails". 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 #448,119 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.