Which to use
“bad” is a noun and “by” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,699
- “bad” frequency rank
- #1,598
- “by” frequency rank
- 6297
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bad | by |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | banho | por; |
Letter map: bad vs by
Shared letters muted; letters that set bad and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for bad / by
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bad is anoun and byapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6297, 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/. by is at rank #1,598, tagged as aprep.
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 6297, this pair ranks #68,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bad vs by
Shared letters: b. Private to "bad": ad. Private to "by": y.
"bad" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bad" and "by" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bad" or "by"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bad" and "by".
- Full dictionary entry for "bad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #68,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bad" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bad vs bué". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #68,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.