blow vs bom, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“blow” is a noun and “bom” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,147
“blow” frequency rank: #41,679
“bom” frequency rank: 82826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	blow	bom
Definition	Coup.	Bon.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set blow and bom apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

blow

3 ch

bom

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blow is \bləʊ\ while bom is \bõ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blow is recorded at frequency rank #41,147, classified as anoun, pronounced \bləʊ\. bom is at rank #41,679, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bõ\.

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 82826, this pair ranks #15,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blow vs bom

Shared letters: bo. Private to "blow": lw. Private to "bom": m.

"blow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

blow ← bblow · bllow · bloww · blwo · lbow

Frequency comparison

blow#41,147

bom#41,679

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "blow" and "bom" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blow" is a noun and "bom" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "blow" or "bom"?

"blow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,147 in our French list, against #41,679 for "bom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering blow vs bom

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “blow”; for an adjective, it's “bom”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “blow” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable