Bauble or bobble?
bauble is a noun meaning “A cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw”; bobble is a noun meaning “A furry ball attached on top of a hat”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) bobble is about 2.3 times as common as bauble.
What is the difference between bauble and bobble?
| bauble | bobble | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw Anything trivial and worthless | A furry ball attached on top of a hat UKElasticated band used for securing hair (for instance in a ponytail), a hair tie To bob up and down |
| Example | none recorded | A neat interchange between Mikel Arteta and Wilshere set up Podolski and his finish bobbled into the net via Gallas |
| Forms | baubles | bobbles |
| Pronunciation | [ˈbɔːbəɫ] [ˈbɒbəɫ] /ˈbɔbəl/ | /ˈbɒbəl/ |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: bauble and bobble in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of bauble and bobble
bauble
- 1
A cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw
- 2
Anything trivial and worthless
- 3
A small shiny spherical decoration, commonly put on Christmas trees
- 4
A club or sceptre carried by a jester
bobble
- 1
A furry ball attached on top of a hat
- 2
To bob up and down
- 3
UKElasticated band used for securing hair (for instance in a ponytail), a hair tie
- 4
USTo make a mistake in
- 5
informalA pill (a ball formed on the surface of the fabric, as on laundered clothes)
- 6
To roll slowly
A neat interchange between Mikel Arteta and Wilshere set up Podolski and his finish bobbled into the net via Gallas
- 7
A localized set of stitches forming a raised bump
- 8
USTo mishandle a ball
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, bauble or bobble?
bauble appears about once in every 5 million words; bobble about once in every 2 million words.
bauble about once in every 5 million wordsbobble about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).