boresvsboyerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,207
“bores” frequency rank
#30,708
“boyer” frequency rank
65915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bores boyer
Definition plural of bore A Flemish sloop with a castle at each end.

Where the eye mixes bores and boyer

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

5 ch
bores
5 ch
boyer

Visual trap between bores and boyer

A purely visual mix-up. bores (/bɔɹz/) and boyer (/ˈbɔɪɚ/) 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 65915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bores is recorded at frequency rank #35,207, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɔɹz/. boyer is at rank #30,708, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔɪɚ/.

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 65915, this pair ranks #70,464 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bores vs boyer

Shared letters: beor. Private to "bores": s. Private to "boyer": y.

"bores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "boyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boresbbores · boress · borres · borse · broes · obres
  • boyerbboyer · boeyr · boyerr · boyre · boyyer · byoer · obyer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bores" for "boyer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɔɹz/ versus /ˈbɔɪɚ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "bores" or "boyer" show up more?
"boyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,708 in our English list, against #35,207 for "bores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bores" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,464 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bores" and "boyer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bodes vs bores". 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 #70,464 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