Bowl and bowel are two words that are close in spelling and pronunciation and may be considered confusables. We will examine the different meanings of the confusables bowl and bowel, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.
Bowl may mean 1.) a deep dish suitable for holding food or other items 2. ) the contents of a bowl 3.) a playoff game to determine the winner of a certain league in sports like football 4.) to roll the ball toward the pins in a game of bowling 5.) to propel the ball toward the batsman in a game of cricket 6.) in British English, to move rapidly in a certain direction. The word bowl is derived from the fifteenth century word bowl, which meant a wooden ball. Bowl may be used as a noun or a verb, related words are bowls, bowled, bowling, bowler.
The bowel is the intestine; the word bowel is also used figuratively to mean the deepest part of something. The word bowel is derived from the Old French word, boele, which means intestines.
Examples
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in another bowl. (Daily Reporter)
A 2016 PepsiCo Inc Super Bowl ad featuring a woman dancing through different historical eras didn’t infringe an ad agency’s copyright in its allegedly similar pitch to the soda giant, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Friday. (Reuters)
Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by recurrent chronic abdominal pain and impaired bowel habits, which affects daily activity and work productivity, and is associated with a significant healthcare economic burden as well as an impaired quality of life and psycho-affective profile. (Dove Medical Press)
“They flew through the bowels of hell and would never abandon anyone on the ground,” Willing said. (Montana Standard)