Which to use
“bent” and “bes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,199
- “bent” frequency rank
- #32,697
- “bes” frequency rank
- 39896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bent | bes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of bend | third-person singular simple present indicative of be |
Where the eye mixes bent and bes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. bent (/bɛnt/) and bes (/biːz/) 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 39896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bent is recorded at frequency rank #7,199, classified as averb, pronounced /bɛnt/. bes is at rank #32,697, tagged as averb, pronounced /biːz/.
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 39896, this pair ranks #272,492 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bent vs bes
Shared letters: be. Private to "bent": nt. Private to "bes": s.
"bent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bes" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bent ← bbent · bennt · bentt · betn · bnet · ebnt