boggedvsbuggedConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,192
“bogged” frequency rank
#25,691
“bugged” frequency rank
54883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bogged bugged
Definition simple past and past participle of bog simple past and past participle of bug

Letter map: bogged vs bugged

Shared letters muted; letters that set bogged and bugged apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
bogged
6 ch
bugged

Corpus notes: bogged and bugged

bogged and bugged 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 differ by a single letter - o in “bogged” becomes u in “bugged”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bogged is recorded at frequency rank #29,192, classified as averb. bugged is at rank #25,691, tagged as averb, pronounced /bʌɡd/.

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 54883, this pair ranks #137,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bogged vs bugged

Shared letters: bdeg. Private to "bogged": o. Private to "bugged": u.

"bogged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bugged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boggedbbogged · bgoged · boged · bogegd · boggde · boggedd · obgged
  • buggedbbugged · bguged · buged · bugegd · buggde · buggedd · ubgged

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bogged" and "bugged" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - o in “bogged” becomes u in “bugged”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "bogged" or "bugged" show up more?
"bugged" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,691 in our English list, against #29,192 for "bogged". 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 "bogged" and "bugged".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bogged" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bugged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bogged" and "bugged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bugged vs butted". 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 #137,745 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