badvsbokWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“bad” and “bok” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,699
“bad” frequency rank
#41,372
“bok” frequency rank
46071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bad bok
Definition banho bode

Where the eye mixes bad and bok

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
bad
3 ch
bok

Why the eye confuses bad with bok

A purely visual mix-up. bad (/bɑt/) and bok (/bɔk/) 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 46071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bad is recorded at frequency rank #4,699, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɑt/. bok is at rank #41,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɔk/.

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 46071, this pair ranks #19,289 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bad vs bok

Shared letters: b. Private to "bad": ad. Private to "bok": ko.

"bad" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bok" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bad" and "bok" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bɑt/ versus /bɔk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bad" vs "bok" - which ranks higher?
"bad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,699 in our Portuguese list, against #41,372 for "bok". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bok" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,289 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bad" and "bok" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bok vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #19,289 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list