blotvsboyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,900
“blot” frequency rank
#4,553
“boy” frequency rank
49453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blot boy
Definition Instrument pour mesurer la marche d’un navire (élément du loch). Dans les colonies, valet, domestique.

Where the eye mixes blot and boy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
blot
3 ch
boy

Look-alike desk: blot vs boy

A purely visual mix-up. blot (\blo\) and boy (\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 49453, 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\. boy is at rank #4,553, 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 49453, this pair ranks #170,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blot vs boy

Shared letters: bo. Private to "blot": lt. Private to "boy": y.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blotbblot · bllot · blott · blto · lbot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blot" and "boy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\blo\ versus \bɔj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "blot" or "boy"?
"boy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,553 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "blot" and "boy" 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 "boy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blot" and "boy" 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 #170,542 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