Which to use
“bois” and “bouts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #576
- “bois” frequency rank
- #8,966
- “bouts” frequency rank
- 9542
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bois | bouts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance dure et fibreuse des arbres. | Pluriel de bout. |
Where the eye mixes bois and bouts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bois runs 4 letters (CVVC) against bouts's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: bois vs bouts
A purely visual mix-up. bois (\bwɑ\) and bouts (\bu\) 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 9542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bois is recorded at frequency rank #576, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwɑ\. bouts is at rank #8,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bu\.
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 9542, this pair ranks #416,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bois vs bouts
Shared letters: bos. Private to "bois": i. Private to "bouts": tu.
"bois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bouts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bois" and "bouts" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bois" or "bouts"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bouts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bois" and "bouts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boers vs bouts". 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 #416,276 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.