bogey
/bəʊɡi/
"bogey" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bogey” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #31,877 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #31,877
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bogey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bəʊɡi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #31,877 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bogey” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bogey is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bəʊɡi/. Corpus data places it at rank #31,877 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for bogey, with forms such as "bbogey", "bgoey", and "boegy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "boy", "bone", "bore", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably related to or alteration of bogle, akin to or from a variant of Middle English bugge (“frightening specter, scarecrow”) (whence bug), itself of uncertain origin: perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat”, o… The correct English form is bogey, spelled B-O-G-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature.
- 2The Devil.
- 3A bugbear: any terrifying thing.
- 4A police officer.
- 5A standard of performance set up as a mark to be aimed at in competition.
- 6An unidentified aircraft, especially as observed as a spot on a radar screen and suspected to be hostile.
- 7Synonym of bandit: an enemy aircraft.
- 8The notional opponent of a golfer playing alone.
- 9A score of one over par on a hole.
- 10A piece of mucus in or removed from the nostril; a booger.
Etymology
Probably related to or alteration of bogle, akin to or from a variant of Middle English bugge (“frightening specter, scarecrow”) (whence bug), itself of uncertain origin: perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat”, older “fear”), Irish bagairt (“threat”), but perhaps the root was borrowed from Germanic. Otherwise from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge and Alemannic German Böögg (“goblin”, “snot”). See also Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), Old English pūca (“goblin, mischievous spirit”), Icelandic púki Swedish puke (“small devil, spook”), whence obsolete English puck. Perhaps the Middle English and Welsh words come from a word related to buck and originally referred to a goat-shaped specter. Compare also booger. The golf sense is from the devil as an imaginary player. The sometimes proscribed conflation with bandit was popularized by the 1986 film Top Gun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbogey,bgoey,boegy,bogeyy,boggey,bogye,obgey
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bogey - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “bogey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-G-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bəʊɡi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “boy” - see the side-by-side comparison. bogey vs boy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.