Which to use
“boxes” and “buses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,683
- “boxes” frequency rank
- #47,198
- “buses” frequency rank
- 88881
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boxes | buses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de boxe. | Pluriel de buse. |
Where the eye mixes boxes and buses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between boxes and buses
A purely visual mix-up. boxes (\bɔks\) and buses (\byz\) 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 88881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boxes is recorded at frequency rank #41,683, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔks\. buses is at rank #47,198, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byz\.
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 88881, this pair ranks #6,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of boxes vs buses
Shared letters: bes. Private to "boxes": ox. Private to "buses": u.
"boxes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "buses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "boxes" and "buses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "boxes" vs "buses" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "boxes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "buses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boxes" and "buses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "busan vs buses". 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 #6,428 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.