Boston
/ˈbɔstən/
"boston" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Boston” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,147 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #2,147
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A town and borough in Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3244).
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 | Boston |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɔstən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,147 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Boston” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Boston is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɔstən/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,147 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 29 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Boston, with forms such as "bboston", "bosotn", and "bosston". 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, "Botox", "bottom", "button", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The US city is named after the English town (from which several prominent colonists had come), which itself is sometimes said to be named as a contraction of Botolph's town or Botolph's stone (the name Botolph itself coming from Old English Botwulf, from bo… The correct English form is Boston, spelled B-O-S-T-O-N.
Definition
- 1A town and borough in Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3244).
- 2A number of places in the United States:
- 3A number of places in the United States:
- 4A number of places in the United States:
- 5A number of places in the United States:
- 6A number of places in the United States:
- 7A number of places in the United States:
- 8A number of places in the United States:
- 9A number of places in the United States:
- 10A number of places in the United States:
- 11A number of places in the United States:
- 12A number of places in the United States:
- 13A number of places in the United States:
- 14A number of places in the United States:
- 15A number of places in the United States:
- 16A number of places in the United States:
- 17A number of places in the United States:
- 18A number of places in the United States:
- 19A number of places in the United States:
- 20A town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
- 21A town in South Australia.
- 22A municipality of the Philippines.
- 23A village in County Clare, Ireland.
- 24A village in Kyrgyzstan.
- 25A settlement in Belize.
- 26A settlement in Suriname.
- 27An eighteenth-century trick-taking card game for four players, with two packs of fifty-two cards each.
- 28A habitational surname transferred from the place name.
- 29A male given name transferred from the place name or surname.
Etymology
The US city is named after the English town (from which several prominent colonists had come), which itself is sometimes said to be named as a contraction of Botolph's town or Botolph's stone (the name Botolph itself coming from Old English Botwulf, from boda + wulf). However, this is uncertain.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bboston,bosotn,bosston,bostno,bostonn,bostton,botson,bsoton,obston
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Boston - 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
How do you spell "Boston"?
What does "Boston" mean?
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Using “Boston”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-S-T-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɔstən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Botox” - see the side-by-side comparison. Boston vs Botox
- 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.