Bald or bold?
bald is an adjective meaning “Having little or no hair, fur, or feathers”; bold is an adjective meaning “Courageous, daring”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) bold is about 2.7 times as common as bald.
What is the difference between bald and bold?
| bald | bold | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | adjective, verb, noun |
| Meaning | Having little or no hair, fur, or feathers Having little or no hair on the head, or having a large area of bare scalp on top of the head A mountain summit or crest that lacks forest growth despite a warm climate conducive to such, as is found in many places in the Southern Appalachian Mountains | Courageous, daring Visually striking; conspicuous informalTo make (a font or some text) bold |
| Example | My uncle is bald | Bold deeds win admiration and, sometimes, medals |
| Forms | balder, baldest | bolder, boldest |
| Pronunciation | /bɔːld/ /boːld/ /bəʊld/ | /ˈbəʊld/ [ˈbɒʊɫd] /ˈbɒld/ |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words | 18 times per million words |
Sources: bald and bold in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of bald and bold
bald
- 1
Having little or no hair, fur, or feathers
My uncle is bald
- 2
A mountain summit or crest that lacks forest growth despite a warm climate conducive to such, as is found in many places in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
- 3
To become bald
- 4
Having little or no hair on the head, or having a large area of bare scalp on top of the head
a bald man with a moustache
- 5
A bald person
- 6
To make bald
- 7
Of animals, having areas (of fur or plumage) that are colored white, especially on the head
- 8
Of hair, nonexistent
bold
- 1
Courageous, daring
Bold deeds win admiration and, sometimes, medals
- 2
informalTo make (a font or some text) bold
Please bold all these subheads
- 3
Acronym of blood-oxygen-level dependent
- 4
Visually striking; conspicuous
the painter's bold use of colour and outline
- 5
Having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface
Many bold fonts are available on this computer
- 6
Presumptuous, forward or impudent
- 7
IrelandNaughty; insolent; badly-behaved
All of her children are terribly bold and never do as they are told
- 8
Full-bodied
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, bald or bold?
bald appears 6.8 times per million words; bold 18 times per million words.
bald 6.8 times per million wordsbold 18 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search bald vs bold?
“bald vs bold” is searched about 110 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“bold vs bald”, “bald or bold”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.