Boy and buoy are two commonly confused words that are pronounced in the same way when spoken aloud but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the definitions of the two words boy and buoy, where they came from and some examples of their use in sentences.
A boy is a male child, a son, a young man. The plural of the term boy is sometimes used in a familiar manner to refer to a group of males. For example, “The boys are going to play poker.” The word boy is derived from the Old English word boie, which means servant or knave.
A buoy is a floating object that is moored in a bay or channel to indicate hazards, ways that one should navigate a boat, or limits that swimmers should not pass. Buoy may also be used as a verb to mean to lift someone’s mood or to keep something or someone afloat in a literal or figurative sense. Related words are buoys, buoyed, buoying. The word buoy is pronounced in different ways, and some may not consider it a homophone. Often, the word buoy is pronounced boo-ee. The word buoy is derived from the old Dutch word boeye which means signal.
Examples
Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, is a blue-eyed boy of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. (The India Times)
Then, he was accused of leading a “boys’ club” culture at the property listings portal, the Herald Sun reported police were called to an altercation at his home (which Catalano says did not involve him) and his last-ditch attempt to scupper the biggest media merger in years fell short. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
This is the heartwarming moment a Filipino diving guide rescues a trapped sea turtle from drowning by untangling it from an underwater buoy rope. (The Daily Mail)
Voter turnout in Florida jumped to more than 52% in last year’s midterm elections from almost 45% in the 2014 midterm races, buoyed by increased ballot-casting by young voters and Hispanics, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. (The Minneapolis Star Tribune)