box vs by, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“box” is a noun and “by” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,381
“box” frequency rank: #1,598
“by” frequency rank: 7979
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	box	by
Definition	cada espaço subdividido por parede ou extrutura similar e que é destinado ao uso comercial dentro de uma construção maior	por;

Letter map: box vs by

Shared letters muted; letters that set box and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

box

2 ch

Role in the sentence - box and by

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: box is anoun and byapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

box is recorded at frequency rank #6,381, classified as anoun. 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 7979, this pair ranks #65,973 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of box vs by

Shared letters: b. Private to "box": ox. Private to "by": y.

"box" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "box" and "by" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "box" is a noun and "by" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "box" or "by"?

"by" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,598 in our Portuguese list, against #6,381 for "box". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "box" vs "by" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "box" 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 #65,973 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"box" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "box vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,973 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.