bodyvsboutWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#382
“body” frequency rank
#6,547
“bout” frequency rank
6929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature body bout
Definition Physical frame. A period of something, especially one painful or unpleasant, like an illness.

Where the eye mixes body and bout

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
body
4 ch
bout

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. body (/ˈbɒd.i/) and bout (/ˈbaʊt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

body is recorded at frequency rank #382, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɒd.i/. bout is at rank #6,547, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaʊt/.

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 6929, this pair ranks #509,368 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of body vs bout

Shared letters: bo. Private to "body": dy. Private to "bout": tu.

"body" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bodybbody · bdoy · boddy · bodyy · obdy
  • boutbbout · botu · boutt · buot · obut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "body" and "bout" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɒd.i/ versus /ˈbaʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "body" or "bout"?
"body" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #382 in our English list, against #6,547 for "bout". 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