Which to use
“bales” and “bolus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,926
- “bales” frequency rank
- #46,942
- “bolus” frequency rank
- 76868
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bales | bolus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of bale | A round mass of something, especially of chewed food in the mouth or alimentary canal. |
Where the eye mixes bales and bolus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bales and bolus 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 bolus
A purely visual mix-up. bales (/beɪlz/) and bolus (/ˈbəʊləs/) 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 76868, 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/. bolus is at rank #46,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbəʊləs/.
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 76868, this pair ranks #28,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bales vs bolus
Shared letters: bls. Private to "bales": ae. Private to "bolus": ou.
"bales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "bolus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bales" for "bolus" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bales" or "bolus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bales" and "bolus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bodes vs bolus". 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 #28,904 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.