bedevsbodesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,050
“bede” frequency rank
#48,094
“bodes” frequency rank
91144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bede bodes
Definition Prayer, request, supplication plural of bode

Where the eye mixes bede and bodes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bede runs 4 letters (CVCV) against bodes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
bede
5 ch
bodes

Look-alike desk: bede vs bodes

A purely visual mix-up. bede (/biːd/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bede is recorded at frequency rank #43,050, classified as anoun, pronounced /biːd/. 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 91144, this pair ranks #3,535 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bede vs bodes

Shared letters: bde. Private to "bede": -. Private to "bodes": os.

"bede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bodes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bede ← bbede · bdee · bedde · beed · ebde
  • bodes ← bbodes · bdoes · boddes · bodess · bodse · boeds · obdes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bede" and "bodes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/biːd/ versus /bəʊdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bede" or "bodes"?
"bede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,050 in our English list, against #48,094 for "bodes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bede" 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 #3,535 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bede" 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 #3,535 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