Which to use
“Bombay” is a name and “booby” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,011
- “Bombay” frequency rank
- #29,563
- “booby” frequency rank
- 41574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Bombay | booby |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The former name of Mumbai, the state capital of Maharashtra, India. | A stupid person. |
Where the eye mixes Bombay and booby
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Bombay with booby
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bombay is /bɒmˈbeɪ/ while booby is /ˈbuːbi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Bombay is recorded at frequency rank #12,011, classified as aname, pronounced /bɒmˈbeɪ/. booby is at rank #29,563, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbuːbi/.
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 41574, this pair ranks #257,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Bombay vs booby
Shared letters: boy. Private to "Bombay": am. Private to "booby": -.
"Bombay" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "booby" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Bombay" for "booby" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Bombay" or "booby"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Bombay" and "booby" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Bombay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "booby" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #257,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Bombay" and "booby" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bby vs booby". 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 #257,069 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.