Skip to main content
PlainSpell

boss

UK /bɒs/noun, verb, adjective

boss is spelled B-O-S-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 58 times per million words in written English, the 1,793rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, boss means “One who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of boss is bosses.

How many letters and syllables are in boss?

Letters4: B-O-S-S
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing58 times per million words; the 1,793rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 boss?

Boss appears 58 times per million words in written English, the 1,793rd 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 boss?

  • UK /bɒs/
  • British /bɔs/
  • /bɔs/

Boss 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-boss.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-boss.wav, En-us-boss.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with boss?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as boss from its last stressed vowel (/ɒs/, British pronunciation):

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 boss

  • bosses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bossing participle, present
  • bossed participle, past
  • bosser comparative
  • bossest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does boss mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    One who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor.

    The boss of the company was going to Spain for work.

  2. 2

    A person in charge of a business or company.

    Chat turned to whisper when the boss entered the conference room.

  3. 3

    A leader, the head of an organized group or team.

    They named him boss because he had good leadership skills.

  4. 4

    The head of a political party in a given region or district.

    He is the Republican boss in Kentucky.

  5. 5

    AustraliaThe male owner or man in charge of a large rural property.

  6. 6

    One's wife.

    There's no olive oil; will sunflower oil do? – I'll have to run that by the boss.

  7. 7

    IndiainformalA term of address to a man, especially a customer; sometimes also to a friend or acquaintance of equal standing.

    Good to see you, boss.

  8. 8

    An enemy, often at the end of a level, that is particularly challenging and must be beaten in order to progress.

  9. 9

    A lump-like mass of rock, especially one projecting through a stratum of different rock.

  10. 10

    A convex protuberance in hammered work, especially the rounded projection in the centre of a shield.

  11. 11

    A protrusion; frequently a cylinder of material that extends beyond a hole.

  12. 12

    A knob or projection, usually at the intersection of ribs in a vault.

  13. 13

    A roughly cut stone set in place for later carving.

  14. 14

    A target block, made of foam but historically made of hay bales, to which a target face is attached.

  15. 15

    A wooden vessel for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder.

  16. 16

    A head or reservoir of water.

  17. 17

    obsoleteA hassock or small seat, especially made from a bundle of straw.

verb

  1. 1

    To exercise authoritative control over; to tell (someone) what to do, often repeatedly.

    By YOU last night’s journey was actually bossed / Without you, I’m certain, we’d all have been lost.

  2. 2

    To decorate with bosses; to emboss.

adjective

  1. 1

    CanadaUSslangOf excellent quality, first-rate.

    That is a boss Zefron poster.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Boss in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpatron, chef (supervisor), clé de voûte (architecture: knob or protrusion)
GermanChef, Chefin (supervisor), Boss, Endgegner (enemy in video game), Buckel (projection in centre of shield), Bund (mechanics: protrusion)
Portuguesesupervisor, chefe, capataz (supervisor), bossa, umbo (projection in centre of shield), líder (head of a political party)
Spanishjefe, jefa, patrón, patrono (supervisor), dirigir, mandar (to exercise authority over (someone))

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 boss come from?

Borrowed from Dutch baas, from Middle Dutch baes (“master of a household, friend”), from Old Dutch *baso (“uncle, kinsman”), from Proto-West Germanic *baswō, from Proto-Germanic *baswô (“uncle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *ba-, *bō- (“father, older male relative”), source also of the English terms babe, boy, bub, bully.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after boss