Which to use
“ba” and “bast” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,761
- “ba” frequency rank
- #47,486
- “bast” frequency rank
- 53247
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ba | bast |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A being's soul or personality, represented as a bird-headed figure, which survives after death but must be sustained with offerings of food. | Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made. |
Letter map: ba vs bast
Shared letters muted; letters that set ba and bast apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Pair insight - ba / bast
ba and bast are indexed as a confusable English 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 2 extra letter(s) - “ba” sits inside “bast”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ba is recorded at frequency rank #5,761, classified as anoun. bast is at rank #47,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɑːst/.
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 53247, this pair ranks #150,557 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ba vs bast
Shared letters: ab. Private to "ba": -. Private to "bast": st.
"ba" · 2 letters · shape CV · "bast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bast ← abst · basst · bastt · bbast · bsat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ba" and "bast" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "ba" vs "bast" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ba" and "bast".
- Full dictionary entry for "ba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bast" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,557 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ba" and "bast" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bast vs BFS". 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 #150,557 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.