Which to use
“billed” and “bowled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,103
- “billed” frequency rank
- #21,459
- “bowled” frequency rank
- 34562
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | billed | bowled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of bill | simple past and past participle of bowl |
Where the eye mixes billed and bowled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. billed and bowled follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between billed and bowled
A purely visual mix-up. billed (/bɪld/) and bowled (/bəʊld/) 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 34562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
billed is recorded at frequency rank #13,103, classified as averb, pronounced /bɪld/. bowled is at rank #21,459, tagged as averb, pronounced /bəʊld/.
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 34562, this pair ranks #319,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of billed vs bowled
Shared letters: bdel. Private to "billed": i. Private to "bowled": ow.
"billed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "bowled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "billed" and "bowled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "billed" or "bowled" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "billed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bowled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "billed" and "bowled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bowled vs bowyer". 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 #319,729 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.