BoisvsboxyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Bois is a name, boxy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bois” is a name and “boxy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,253
“Bois” frequency rank
#44,093
“boxy” frequency rank
62346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bois boxy
Definition A surname from French, related to Dubois. Box-shaped, boxlike, or otherwise suggestive of boxes (with right angles or at least blunt profiles).

Letter map: Bois vs boxy

Shared letters muted; letters that set Bois and boxy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Bois
4 ch
boxy

Role in the sentence - Bois and boxy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Bois is aname and boxyanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bois is recorded at frequency rank #18,253, classified as aname. boxy is at rank #44,093, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɒk.si/.

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 62346, this pair ranks #89,017 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Bois vs boxy

Shared letters: bo. Private to "Bois": is. Private to "boxy": xy.

"Bois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "boxy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Boisbbois · boiss · bosi · obis
  • boxybboxy · boxxy · boxyy · boyx · bxoy · obxy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Bois" and "boxy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bois" is a name and "boxy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Bois" or "boxy"?
"Bois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,253 in our English list, against #44,093 for "boxy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Bois" and "boxy".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boxy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,017 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bois" and "boxy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bevy vs boxy". 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 #89,017 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