bowel
/ˈbaʊ.əl/
"bowel" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bowel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,872 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,872
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
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 | bowel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbaʊ.əl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #13,872 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bowel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bowel is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbaʊ.əl/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,872 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 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 bowel, with forms such as "bbowel", "boewl", and "bowell". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bowl", "bows", "boxes", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau. The correct English form is bowel, spelled B-O-W-E-L.
Definition
- 1A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
- 2The entrails or intestines; the internal organs of the stomach.
- 3The (deep) interior of something.
- 4The seat of pity or the gentler emotions; pity or mercy.
- 5offspring
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbowel,boewl,bowell,bowle,bowwel,bwoel,obwel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bowel - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “bowel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-W-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbaʊ.əl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bowl” - see the side-by-side comparison. bowel vs bowl
- 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.