Which to use
“boîte” and “bolt” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,651
- “boîte” frequency rank
- #24,130
- “bolt” frequency rank
- 25781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boîte | bolt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet rigide et creux ayant la capacité de se fermer et qui a vocation à accueillir quelque chose. | Boulon (mais voir boulon pour nuts and bolts). |
Where the eye mixes boîte and bolt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses boîte with bolt
A purely visual mix-up. boîte (\bwat\) and bolt (\bəʊlt\) 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 25781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boîte is recorded at frequency rank #1,651, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwat\. bolt is at rank #24,130, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bəʊlt\.
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 25781, this pair ranks #338,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of boîte vs bolt
Shared letters: bot. Private to "boîte": eî. Private to "bolt": l.
"boîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "bolt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bolt ← bbolt · bollt · boltt · botl · oblt
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "boîte" and "bolt" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "boîte" or "bolt" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "boîte" and "bolt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "boîte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boîte" and "bolt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bold vs bolt". 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 #338,871 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.