Which to use
“bales” and “bodes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,926
- “bales” frequency rank
- #48,094
- “bodes” frequency rank
- 78020
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bales | bodes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of bale | plural of bode |
Where the eye mixes bales and bodes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bales and bodes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between bales and bodes
A purely visual mix-up. bales (/beɪlz/) and bodes (/bəʊdz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bales is recorded at frequency rank #29,926, classified as anoun, pronounced /beɪlz/. bodes is at rank #48,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bəʊdz/.
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 78020, this pair ranks #25,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bales vs bodes
Shared letters: bes. Private to "bales": al. Private to "bodes": do.
"bales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "bodes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bales" and "bodes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bales" or "bodes"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bales" and "bodes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bodes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bales" and "bodes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bodes vs Bodie". 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 #25,697 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.