bomvsboonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#96
“bom” frequency rank
#41,373
“boon” frequency rank
41469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bom boon
Definition que corresponde plenamente ao que é exigido, desejado ou esperado quanto à sua natureza, adequação, função, eficácia, funcionamento etc. (falando de ser ou coisa) bom, próspero

Letter map: bom vs boon

Shared letters muted; letters that set bom and boon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
bom
4 ch
boon

Corpus notes: bom and boon

bom and boon are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bom is recorded at frequency rank #96, classified as anadj. boon is at rank #41,373, tagged as anadj, pronounced /buːn/.

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 41469, this pair ranks #24,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bom vs boon

Shared letters: bo. Private to "bom": m. Private to "boon": n.

"bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "boon" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boonbboon · bono · boonn · obon

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bom" and "boon" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "bom" vs "boon" - which ranks higher?
"bom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #96 in our Portuguese list, against #41,373 for "boon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "bom" and "boon". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bom" and "boon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bolor vs boon". 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 #24,452 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