bois

\bwɑ\

/\bwɑ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“bois” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #576) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#576
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Substance dure et fibreuse des arbres.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bois · bois · French

bois · rank #576 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #576
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH armée

Nearest frequency peer: armée (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bois »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bois » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

bois vs BS
0% similar
bois vs bon
50% similar
bois vs bus
50% similar

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

Key facts for bois
PropertyValue
Headwordbois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bwɑ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#576
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bois »

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « armée » (#575), « chance » (#577), « âge » (#574). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bois » est au #576. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bois is neighbouring look-alikes ("BS", "bon", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \bwɑ\. Frequency #576 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 11 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bois, with forms such as "bbois", "boiss", and "bosi". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BS", "bon", "bus", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is bois, spelled B-O-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Substance dure et fibreuse des arbres.
  2. 2
    Objet construit dans cette matière.
  3. 3
    Ensemble d’arbres assez proches, délimité par une lisière.
  4. 4
    Famille d’instruments à vent de matières très variées (bois, métal, plastique, terre cuite, os, ivoire, cristal, etc.) et dont le son n'est pas produit par la vibration des lèvres de l'instrumentiste, et comprenant : Les flûtes (vibration de l’air sur un biseau) Les hautbois (vibration d’une anche double) Les clarinettes (vibration d'une anche simple)
  5. 5
    Une section d'orchestre ou un groupe de musiciens qui jouent les instruments de ce type.
  6. 6
    Organe osseux des cervidés qui pousse sur leurs têtes.
  7. 7
    Menues branches, des rejetons que les arbres poussent chaque année.
  8. 8
    Gravure sur bois.
  9. 9
    Club de golf à tête arrondie, utilisé pour frapper la balle à grande distance.
  10. 10
    La forêt en général.
  11. 11
    Coque.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le bois est un matériau noble, une matière vivante.
  2. Les mines sont étançonnées et étayées avec du bois auquel on met le feu, ce qui fait tomber une partie des défenses de la barbacane.

Synonyms

xylème secondairexylographie

This word in other languages

wood(English)madera(Español)Holz(Deutsch)madeira(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbois
  • boiss
  • bosi
  • obis

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bois - 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.

bbois1boiss1bosi2obis2
Edit distance from "bois"

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 "bois"?
"bois" is spelled B-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \bwɑ\.
What does "bois" mean?
As a noun, "bois" means: Substance dure et fibreuse des arbres.
What words are commonly confused with "bois"?
"bois" is commonly confused with "BS", "bon", "bus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bois" is \bwɑ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bois" come from?
"bois" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "bois", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Date#580mots#570mode#585cœur#552

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list