boiledvsbottledTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,510
“boiled” frequency rank
#15,113
“bottled” frequency rank
26623
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boiled bottled
Definition simple past and past participle of boil simple past and past participle of bottle

Letter map: boiled vs bottled

Shared letters muted; letters that set boiled and bottled apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
boiled
7 ch
bottled

Spelling & dictionary notes on boiled vs bottled

boiled and bottled 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26623, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boiled is recorded at frequency rank #11,510, classified as averb, pronounced /bɔɪld/. bottled is at rank #15,113, tagged as averb.

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 26623, this pair ranks #385,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of boiled vs bottled

Shared letters: bdelo. Private to "boiled": i. Private to "bottled": t.

"boiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "bottled" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boiledbboiled · bioled · boield · boilde · boiledd · boilled · bolied · obiled
  • bottledbbottled · botled · botlted · botteld · bottlde · bottledd · bottlled · btotled

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "boiled" and "bottled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "boiled" vs "bottled" - which ranks higher?
"boiled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,510 in our English list, against #15,113 for "bottled". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "boiled" and "bottled".

  • Full dictionary entry for "boiled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bottled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boiled" and "bottled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bottled 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 #385,319 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