boa

\bo.a\

/\bo.a\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“boa” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #29,666) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#29,666
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Genre de serpents qui se trouvent principalement en Amérique du Sud et qui sont les plus forts et les plus grands que l’on connaisse.

Corpus desk

Index FR-boa · boa · French

boa · rank #29,666 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #29,666
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH BN

Nearest frequency peer: BN (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “boa”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “boa” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

boa vs by
33% similar
boa vs bu
33% similar
boa vs Br
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for boa
PropertyValue
Headwordboa
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bo.a\
Letters3
Frequency rank#29,666
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “boa” se place dans la fréquence du français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).boase place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « BN » (#29,665), « bolton » (#29,667), « blindage » (#29,664). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for boa is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "bu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \bo.a\. Frequency #29,666 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

boa doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "bu", "Br", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is boa, spelled B-O-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Genre de serpents qui se trouvent principalement en Amérique du Sud et qui sont les plus forts et les plus grands que l’on connaisse.
  2. 2
    Tour de cou en fourrure ou en plumes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how boa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. « Laisse-le. S’il n’a pas faim, la nourriture pourrait le rendre malade. Ne prenons pas cette responsabilité. Après tout, le serpent boa ne mange qu’une fois par mois. »
  2. Cette trouille ! Sur le coup, j'ai cru qu'il avait aperçu un truc chaudard. Une mygale, un boa, un caïman.

This word in other languages

boa(English)boa(Español)boa(Português)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "boa"?
"boa" is spelled B-O-A. The IPA pronunciation is \bo.a\.
What does "boa" mean?
As a noun, "boa" means: Genre de serpents qui se trouvent principalement en Amérique du Sud et qui sont les plus forts et les plus grands que l’on connaisse.
What words are commonly confused with "boa"?
"boa" is commonly confused with "by", "bu", "Br". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "boa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "boa" is \bo.a\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "boa" come from?
"boa" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "boa", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

apt#29,641amp#29,631dow#29,730dry#29,733

What to do next

You've looked up "boa". Here's where to go from here.

  • "boa" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "by". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #29,666 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list