boy
/bɔɪ/
"boy" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“boy” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #688 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #688
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A male child.
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 | boy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɔɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #688 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “boy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for boy is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɔɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #688 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for boy, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BS", "br", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- Proto-Germanic *bō- Proto-West Germanic *bōjō Old English *bōia Middle English boye English boy From Middle English boy /boye (“servant, commoner, knave, boy”), from Old English *bōia (“boy”), from Proto-West Germani… The correct English form is boy, spelled B-O-Y.
Definition
- 1A male child.
- 2A young man.
- 3A son of any age.
- 4A male human younger than the speaker.
- 5A male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age).
- 6A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
- 7A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly
- 8A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee
- 9A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee
- 10A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee
- 11Any non-white male, regardless of age.
- 12A male friend.
- 13A male submissive.
- 14A male non-human animal, especially, in affectionate address, a male pet, especially a dog.
- 15A former low rank of various armed services; a holder of this rank.
- 16Heroin.
- 17A male (tree, gene, etc).
- 18Any tangible object close to one's person; often used in emphatic forms such as bad boy.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- Proto-Germanic *bō- Proto-West Germanic *bōjō Old English *bōia Middle English boye English boy 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”). Cognate with Scots boy (“boy”), West Frisian boai (“boy”), Dutch boi (“boy”), Low German Boi (“boy”), and probably to the Old English proper name Bōia. Also related to West Flemish boe (“brother”), Norwegian dialectal boa (“brother”), Dutch boef (“rogue, knave”), Bavarian Bua (“young boy, lad”), German Bube ("boy; knave; jack"; > English bub), Icelandic bófi (“rogue, crook, bandit, knave”), Lombard bagaj. See also bully.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “boy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɔɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. boy vs by
- 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.