bightvsblightTell them apart

Which to use

“bight” and “blight” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,057
“bight” frequency rank
#21,145
“blight” frequency rank
64202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bight blight
Definition A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow A diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one caused by a fungus; a mildew, a rust, a smut.

Where the eye mixes bight and blight

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bight
6 ch
blight

Why the eye confuses bight with blight

A purely visual mix-up. bight (/baɪt/) and blight (/blaɪt/) 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 64202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bight is recorded at frequency rank #43,057, classified as anoun, pronounced /baɪt/. blight is at rank #21,145, tagged as anoun, pronounced /blaɪt/.

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 64202, this pair ranks #78,964 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bight vs blight

Shared letters: bghit. Private to "bight": -. Private to "blight": l.

"bight" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "blight" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bightbbight · bgiht · bigght · bighht · bightt · bigth · bihgt · ibght
  • blightbblight · bilght · blgiht · bligght · blighht · blightt · bligth · blihgt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bight" and "blight" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/baɪt/ versus /blaɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bight" vs "blight" - which ranks higher?
"blight" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,145 in our English list, against #43,057 for "bight". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "bight" and "blight" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bight" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blight" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,964 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bight" and "blight" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bidet vs bight". 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 #78,964 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