boardvsbodWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#567
“board” frequency rank
#27,073
“bod” frequency rank
27640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature board bod
Definition A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making. The body.

Where the eye mixes board and bod

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
board
3 ch
bod

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. board (/bɔːd/) and bod (/bɒd/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

board is recorded at frequency rank #567, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɔːd/. bod is at rank #27,073, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɒd/.

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 27640, this pair ranks #377,344 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of board vs bod

Shared letters: bdo. Private to "board": ar. Private to "bod": -.

"board" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "bod" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boardbaord · bboard · boadr · boardd · boarrd · borad · obard

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "board" and "bod" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bɔːd/ versus /bɒd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "board" or "bod"?
"board" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #567 in our English list, against #27,073 for "bod". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list