bonusvsboutsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“bonus” and “bouts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,047
“bonus” frequency rank
#8,966
“bouts” frequency rank
13013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bonus bouts
Definition Prime. Pluriel de bout.

Where the eye mixes bonus and bouts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bonus (CVCVC) and bouts (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
bonus
5 ch
bouts

Why the eye confuses bonus with bouts

A purely visual mix-up. bonus (\bɔ.nys\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bonus is recorded at frequency rank #4,047, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.nys\. 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 13013, this pair ranks #402,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bonus vs bouts

Shared letters: bosu. Private to "bonus": n. Private to "bouts": t.

"bonus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "bouts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonusbbonus · bnous · bonnus · bonsu · bonuss · bouns · obnus
  • boutsbbouts · botus · boust · boutss · boutts · buots · obuts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bonus" and "bouts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɔ.nys\ versus \bu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bonus" or "bouts"?
"bonus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,047 in our French list, against #8,966 for "bouts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bonus" 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 #402,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bonus" 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 #402,790 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list