Which to use
“boast” and “boost” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,705
- “boast” frequency rank
- #3,545
- “boost” frequency rank
- 18250
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boast | boost |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself. | A push from behind or below, as to one who is endeavoring to climb. |
Where the eye mixes boast and boost
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses boast with boost
A purely visual mix-up. boast (/bəʊst/) and boost (/buːst/) 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 a single letter - a in “boast” becomes o in “boost”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boast is recorded at frequency rank #14,705, classified as anoun, pronounced /bəʊst/. boost is at rank #3,545, tagged as anoun, pronounced /buːst/.
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 18250, this pair ranks #446,128 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of boast vs boost
Shared letters: bost. Private to "boast": a. Private to "boost": -.
"boast" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "boost" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "boast" for "boost" ever safe?
Frequency check: "boast" vs "boost" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "boast" and "boost" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "boast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #446,128 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boast" and "boost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beaut vs boast". 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 #446,128 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.