boltsvsboxesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,554
“bolts” frequency rank
#4,003
“boxes” frequency rank
16557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bolts boxes
Definition plural of bolt plural of box

Where the eye mixes bolts and boxes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bolts
5 ch
boxes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. bolts (/bəʊlts/) and boxes (/ˈbɑksɪz/) 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 16557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bolts is recorded at frequency rank #12,554, classified as anoun, pronounced /bəʊlts/. boxes is at rank #4,003, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɑksɪz/.

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 16557, this pair ranks #457,007 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bolts vs boxes

Shared letters: bos. Private to "bolts": lt. Private to "boxes": ex.

"bolts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "boxes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boltsbbolts · blots · bollts · bolst · boltss · boltts · botls · oblts
  • boxesbboxes · boexs · boxess · boxse · boxxes · bxoes · obxes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bolts" and "boxes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bəʊlts/ versus /ˈbɑksɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bolts" or "boxes"?
"boxes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,003 in our English list, against #12,554 for "bolts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list