boast
/boʊst/noun, verb
boast is spelled B-O-A-S-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, boast means “A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of boast is boasts.
How many letters and syllables are in boast?
| Letters | 5: B-O-A-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is boast?
Boast appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce boast?
- UK /bəʊst/
- US /boʊst/
Boast has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-boast.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with boast?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as boast from its last stressed vowel (/oʊst/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sabot, basto.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of boast
- boasts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- boasting participle, present
- boasted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does boast mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself.
- 2
Something that one brags about.
It was his regular boast that he could eat two full English breakfasts in one sitting.
- 3
A shot where the ball is driven off a side wall and then strikes the front wall.
verb
- 1
To brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself.
- 2
[with about or of] To speak of with pride, vanity, or exultation, with a view to self-commendation; to extol.
- 3
obsoleteTo speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult.
- 4
To play a boast shot.
- 5
To possess (a special and desirable quality).
The hotel boasts one of the best views of the sea.
- 6
To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel.
- 7
To shape roughly as a preparation for the finer work to follow; to cut to the general form required.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Boast in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vantardise, fanfaronnade , double-mur , se vanter , vanter |
| German | Angeben, Prahlen , angeben, prahlen |
| Portuguese | ostentação , ostentar, exibir-se, gabar , gabar-se, vangloriar-se |
| Spanish | alarde, fanfarronada, vanagloria, jactancia , alardear, fanfarronear |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does boast come from?
From Middle English bosten, from bost (“boast, glory, noise, arrogance, presumption, pride, vanity”), probably of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bausuz (“inflated, swollen, puffed up, proud, arrogant, bad”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).