Which to use
“bois” and “boites” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #576
- “bois” frequency rank
- #12,526
- “boites” frequency rank
- 13102
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bois | boites |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance dure et fibreuse des arbres. | Pluriel de boite. |
Where the eye mixes bois and boites
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bois runs 4 letters (CVVC) against boites's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bois with boites
A purely visual mix-up. bois (\bwɑ\) and boites (\bwat\) 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 13102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bois is recorded at frequency rank #576, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwɑ\. boites is at rank #12,526, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bwat\.
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 13102, this pair ranks #402,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bois vs boites
Shared letters: bios. Private to "bois": -. Private to "boites": et.
"bois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "boites" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bois" and "boites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "bois" or "boites" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "bois" and "boites" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bois" and "boites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boites vs bordés". 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 #402,432 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.