Which to use
“body” and “by” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,118
- “body” frequency rank
- #2,462
- “by” frequency rank
- 15580
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | body | by |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sous-vêtement moulant féminin sans manche qui couvre d’une seule pièce tout le buste et l’entrejambe. | Fossé qui traverse un étang, aboutissant à sa bonde. |
Where the eye mixes body and by
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses body with by
A purely visual mix-up. body (\bo.di\) and by (\bi\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
body is recorded at frequency rank #13,118, classified as anoun, pronounced \bo.di\. by is at rank #2,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bi\.
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 15580, this pair ranks #391,738 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of body vs by
Shared letters: by. Private to "body": do. Private to "by": -.
"body" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- body ← bbody · bdoy · boddy · bodyy · boyd · obdy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "body" for "by" ever safe?
Frequency check: "body" vs "by" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "body" and "by" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "body" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,738 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "body" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "body vs bury". 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 #391,738 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.