bodesvsbowerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,094
“bodes” frequency rank
#28,848
“bower” frequency rank
76942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bodes bower
Definition plural of bode A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.

Letter map: bodes vs bower

Shared letters muted; letters that set bodes and bower apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bodes and bower follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
bodes
5 ch
bower

Corpus notes: bodes and bower

bodes and bower are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76942, 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/. bower is at rank #28,848, tagged as anoun.

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 76942, this pair ranks #28,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bodes vs bower

Shared letters: beo. Private to "bodes": ds. Private to "bower": rw.

"bodes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "bower" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bodes ← bbodes · bdoes · boddes · bodess · bodse · boeds · obdes
  • bower ← bbower · boewr · bowerr · bowre · bowwer · bwoer · obwer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bodes" for "bower" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "bodes" or "bower"?
"bower" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,848 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bodes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bower" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bodes" and "bower" 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 #28,697 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