Which to use
“boulard” and “boyard” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,774
- “boulard” frequency rank
- #34,905
- “boyard” frequency rank
- 77679
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boulard | boyard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grosse bille pour enfant. | Nom qu’on donnait aux seigneurs en Russie ou en Transylvanie. |
Where the eye mixes boulard and boyard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: boulard vs boyard
A purely visual mix-up. boulard (\bu.laʁ\) and boyard (\bɔ.jaʁ\) 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 77679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boulard is recorded at frequency rank #42,774, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.laʁ\. boyard is at rank #34,905, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.jaʁ\.
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 77679, this pair ranks #27,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of boulard vs boyard
Shared letters: abdor. Private to "boulard": lu. Private to "boyard": y.
"boulard" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "boyard" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "boulard" and "boyard" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "boulard" vs "boyard" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "boulard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boyard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boulard" and "boyard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bompard vs boulard". 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 #27,717 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.