Boi or boy?
boi is a noun meaning “A male bottom (i.e. submissive partner), defined not by junior age, but by his…”; boy is a noun meaning “A male child”. They sound the same (/bɔɪ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) boy is about 59 times as common as boi.
What is the difference between boi and boy?
| boi | boy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, interjection | noun, interjection, verb, adjective |
| Meaning | A male bottom (i.e. submissive partner), defined not by junior age, but by his obedient role and submission to the dominant "top" A lesbian who adopts a boyish appearance | A male child informalA young man Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing |
| Example | none recorded | Kieran plays football with other boys in his school |
| Forms | bois, boiz | boys, boyz |
| Pronunciation | /bɔɪ/ | /bɔɪ/ /boj/ /boɪ/ |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words | 148 times per million words |
Sources: boi and boy in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of boi and boy
boi
- 1
Initialism of basal osseointegrated implant
- 2
slangAlternative spelling of boy
- 3
Alternative spelling of boy (“exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing”)
- 4
Initialism of bill of information
- 5
A male bottom (i.e. submissive partner), defined not by junior age, but by his obedient role and submission to the dominant "top"
- 6
A lesbian who adopts a boyish appearance
- 7
A trans boy; a trans man or transmasculine person
boy
- 1
A male child
Kieran plays football with other boys in his school
- 2
Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing
Boy, that was close!
- 3
To act as a boy (in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage)
- 4
Initialism of beginning of year
Coordinate term: EOY (“end of year”)
- 5
informalA young man
Kate is dating a boy named Jim
- 6
A son of any age
- 7
A male human younger than the speaker
- 8
derogatoryinformalA male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age)
boys' club
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, boi or boy?
boi appears 2.5 times per million words; boy 148 times per million words.
boi 2.5 times per million wordsboy 148 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search boi vs boy?
“boi vs boy” is searched about 20 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.