# both

> English word · Determiner · IPA /bəʊθ/ · frequency rank #157

## Definitions
1. Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

## Etymology
From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and possibly reinforced by Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō, from Old English bā, a form of Old English bēġen. A remnant of the Indo-European dual grammatical number.

## Easily confused with
- **Bt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bt)
- **but** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-but)
- **boy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-boy)
- **box** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-box)
- **bow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bow)
- **BTW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-btw)
- **BTC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-btc)
- **BTS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bts)
- **BTU** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-btu)
- **boys** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-boys)
- **bowl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bowl)
- **bush** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bush)
- **butt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-butt)
- **bout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bout)
- **Boyd** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-boyd)
- **bruh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bruh)
- **bows** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-bows)
- **byte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-byte)
- **boyz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-boyz)
- **brah** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/both-vs-brah)

## Common misspellings (6)
`bboth`, `boht`, `bothh`, `botth`, `btoh`, `obth`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/both