boy
/bɔɪ/noun, interjection, verb
boy is spelled B-O-Y: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “boi vs boy” about 20 times a month (Bing, United States). As a noun, boy means “A male child” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of boy is boys or boyz.
How many letters and syllables are in boy?
| Letters | 3: B-O-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 148 times per million words; the 697th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is boy?
Boy appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th 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 boy?
- US /bɔɪ/
- British /boj/
- Australia /boɪ/
Boy 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: En-us-boy.ogg, En-us-boy.oga, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-boy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with boy
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: boi, buoy (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: boi.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with boy?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as boy from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɪ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: yob.
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 boy
- boys plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- boyz plural
- boi
- boying participle, present
- boyed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does boy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A male child.
Kieran plays football with other boys in his school.
- 2
informalA young man.
Kate is dating a boy named Jim.
- 3
A son of any age.
- 4
A male human younger than the speaker.
- 5
derogatoryinformalA male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age).
boys' club
- 6
obsoleteA male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
- 7
A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly
- 8
A younger such worker.
interjection
- 1
Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing.
Boy, that was close!
verb
- 1
To act as a boy (in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage).
adjective
- 1
Initialism of beginning of year.
Coordinate term: EOY (“end of year”)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Boy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | garçon , boy , gars |
| German | Bub, Bube, Junge, Knabe, Bueb , Junge! |
| Portuguese | garoto, menino, moço, puto, miúdo, mancebo |
| Spanish | niño, chaval, varón, chico, boy or girl?) ¿varón o mujer? |
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 boy come from?
From Middle English boy /boye (“servant, commoner, knave, boy”), from Old English *bōia (“boy”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōjō, from Proto-Germanic *bōjô (“younger brother, young male relation”), from Proto-Germanic *bō- (“brother, close male relation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-, *bʰāt- (“father, elder brother, brother”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).