Which to use
“bowed” is a verb and “Bowes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,773
- “bowed” frequency rank
- #41,534
- “Bowes” frequency rank
- 60307
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bowed | Bowes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of bow | plural of Bowe |
Letter map: bowed vs Bowes
Shared letters muted; letters that set bowed and Bowes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for bowed / Bowes
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bowed is averb and Bowesaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - d in “bowed” becomes s in “Bowes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bowed is recorded at frequency rank #18,773, classified as averb, pronounced /baʊd/. Bowes is at rank #41,534, tagged as aname.
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 60307, this pair ranks #100,917 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bowed vs Bowes
Shared letters: beow. Private to "bowed": d. Private to "Bowes": s.
"bowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "Bowes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bowed" and "Bowes" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "bowed" or "Bowes" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "bowed" and "Bowes". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "bowed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Bowes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,917 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bowed" and "Bowes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bowes vs bowyer". 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 #100,917 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.