Bougie or boujee?
bougie is a noun meaning “A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular…”; boujee is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of bougie (“behaving like or pertaining to people of a…”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) bougie is about 6.5 times as common as boujee.
What is the difference between bougie and boujee?
| bougie | boujee | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie A wax candle | Alternative spelling of bougie (“behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status”) |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | bougies | none |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbuːʒi/ | not recorded |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words | about once in every 30 million words |
Sources: bougie and boujee in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of bougie and boujee
bougie
- 1
A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie
- 2
derogatoryslangBehaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status, middle-class / bourgeois people (sometimes carrying connotations of fakeness, elitism, or snobbery)
- 3
derogatoryslangA person who exhibits bougie behavior
- 4
Alternative spelling of bowjy (“shed for cattle or sheep”)
- 5
A wax candle
- 6
CanadaUKslangFancy or good-looking, without connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness
boujee
- 1
Alternative spelling of bougie (“behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status”)
- 2
Alternative spelling of bougie (“behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status”)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, bougie or boujee?
bougie appears about once in every 5 million words; boujee about once in every 30 million words.
bougie about once in every 5 million wordsboujee about once in every 30 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search bougie vs boujee?
“bougie vs boujee” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“boujee vs bougie”, “bougie or boujee”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.