beauvsbevyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“beau” and “bevy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,285
“beau” frequency rank
#49,788
“bevy” frequency rank
63073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beau bevy
Definition A man with a reputation for fine dress and etiquette; a dandy or fop. A group of animals, particularly quail.

Where the eye mixes beau and bevy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
beau
4 ch
bevy

Look-alike desk: beau vs bevy

A purely visual mix-up. beau (/bəʊ/) and bevy (/ˈbɛvi/) 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 63073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beau is recorded at frequency rank #13,285, classified as anoun, pronounced /bəʊ/. bevy is at rank #49,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɛvi/.

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 63073, this pair ranks #85,036 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of beau vs bevy

Shared letters: be. Private to "beau": au. Private to "bevy": vy.

"beau" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "bevy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beaubaeu · bbeau · beua · ebau
  • bevybbevy · bevvy · bevyy · beyv · bvey · ebvy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "beau" for "bevy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bəʊ/ versus /ˈbɛvi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "beau" or "bevy"?
"beau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,285 in our English list, against #49,788 for "bevy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "beau" and "bevy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bevy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,036 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beau" and "bevy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bendy vs bevy". 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 #85,036 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list