blotvsboiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“blot” and “boi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,900
“blot” frequency rank
#33,999
“boi” frequency rank
78899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blot boi
Definition Instrument pour mesurer la marche d’un navire (élément du loch). Forme alternative de boy, utilisée plus particulièrement pour désigner un jeune homme homosexuel soumis.

Where the eye mixes blot and boi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. blot runs 4 letters (CCVC) against boi's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
blot
3 ch
boi

Look-alike desk: blot vs boi

A purely visual mix-up. blot (\blo\) and boi (\bɔj\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blot is recorded at frequency rank #44,900, classified as anoun, pronounced \blo\. boi is at rank #33,999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔj\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 78899, this pair ranks #24,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blot vs boi

Shared letters: bo. Private to "blot": lt. Private to "boi": i.

"blot" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "boi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blot ← bblot · bllot · blott · blto · lbot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blot" for "boi" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\blo\ versus \bɔj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "blot" or "boi" show up more?
"boi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,999 in our French list, against #44,900 for "blot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "blot" and "boi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blot" and "boi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "below vs blot". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #24,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list