bodesvsBoisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bodes is a noun, Bois is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bodes” is a noun and “Bois” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,094
“bodes” frequency rank
#18,253
“Bois” frequency rank
66347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bodes Bois
Definition plural of bode A surname from French, related to Dubois.

Letter map: bodes vs Bois

Shared letters muted; letters that set bodes and Bois apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bodes runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against Bois's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
bodes
4 ch
Bois

Role in the sentence - bodes and Bois

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bodes is anoun and Boisaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bodes is recorded at frequency rank #48,094, classified as anoun, pronounced /bəʊdz/. Bois is at rank #18,253, tagged as aname.

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 66347, this pair ranks #68,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bodes vs Bois

Shared letters: bos. Private to "bodes": de. Private to "Bois": i.

"bodes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Bois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bodes ← bbodes · bdoes · boddes · bodess · bodse · boeds · obdes
  • Bois ← bbois · boiss · bosi · obis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bodes" for "Bois" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bodes" is a noun and "Bois" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bodes" vs "Bois" - which ranks higher?
"Bois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,253 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

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bodes" and "Bois".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bodes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bodes" and "Bois" 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 #68,435 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