bodiedvsboiledWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bodied is a adjective, boiled is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bodied” is an adjective and “boiled” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,352
“bodied” frequency rank
#11,510
“boiled” frequency rank
26862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bodied boiled
Definition Having a specified form of body. simple past and past participle of boil

Where the eye mixes bodied and boiled

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
bodied
6 ch
boiled

Look-alike desk: bodied vs boiled

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bodied is /ˈbɑdid/ while boiled is /bɔɪld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bodied is recorded at frequency rank #15,352, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɑdid/. boiled is at rank #11,510, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɔɪld/.

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 26862, this pair ranks #383,460 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bodied vs boiled

Shared letters: bdeio. Private to "bodied": -. Private to "boiled": l.

"bodied" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "boiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bodiedbbodied · bdoied · boddied · bodeid · bodide · bodiedd · boided · obdied
  • boiledbboiled · bioled · boield · boilde · boiledd · boilled · bolied · obiled

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bodied" and "boiled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bodied" is an adjective and "boiled" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "bodied" or "boiled" show up more?
"boiled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,510 in our English list, against #15,352 for "bodied". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bodied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boiled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,460 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bodied" and "boiled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bodie vs bodied". 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 #383,460 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