BasvsbastConfusable pair

Quick tell: Bas is a name, bast is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Bas” is a name and “bast” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,141
“Bas” frequency rank
#47,486
“bast” frequency rank
68627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bas bast
Definition A surname. Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.

Letter map: Bas vs bast

Shared letters muted; letters that set Bas and bast apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
Bas
4 ch
bast

Role in the sentence - Bas and bast

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Bas is aname and bastanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Bas” sits inside “bast”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bas is recorded at frequency rank #21,141, classified as aname. 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 68627, this pair ranks #58,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Bas vs bast

Shared letters: abs. Private to "Bas": -. Private to "bast": t.

"Bas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bastabst · basst · bastt · bbast · bsat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bas" for "bast" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bas" is a name and "bast" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Bas" or "bast" show up more?
"Bas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,141 in our English list, against #47,486 for "bast". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Bas" and "bast".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bas" 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 #58,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bas" 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 #58,040 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list