Which to use
“bis” is a preposition and “busy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,300
- “bis” frequency rank
- #48,290
- “busy” frequency rank
- 62590
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bis | busy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | até | ocupado |
Letter map: bis vs busy
Shared letters muted; letters that set bis and busy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - bis and busy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bis is apreposition and busyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bis is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as aprep. busy is at rank #48,290, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɪzi/.
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 62590, this pair ranks #6,582 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bis vs busy
Shared letters: bs. Private to "bis": i. Private to "busy": uy.
"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "busy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- busy ← bbusy · bsuy · bussy · busyy · buys · ubsy
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bis" and "busy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bis" or "busy"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bis" and "busy".
- Full dictionary entry for "bis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "busy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,582 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bis" and "busy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bué vs busy". 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 #6,582 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.