Which to use
“barth” and “bast” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,945
- “barth” frequency rank
- #47,486
- “bast” frequency rank
- 81431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barth | bast |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A place of shelter for cattle. | Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made. |
Where the eye mixes barth and bast
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. barth runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against bast's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between barth and bast
A purely visual mix-up. barth (/bɑː(ɹ)θ/) and bast (/bɑːst/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barth is recorded at frequency rank #33,945, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɑː(ɹ)θ/. 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 81431, this pair ranks #17,703 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of barth vs bast
Shared letters: abt. Private to "barth": hr. Private to "bast": s.
"barth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "bast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "barth" and "bast" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "barth" vs "bast" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "barth" 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 #17,703 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barth" 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 #17,703 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.