bingvsbisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,377
“bing” frequency rank
#18,497
“bis” frequency rank
30874
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bing bis
Definition Solitary confinement. plural of bi

Where the eye mixes bing and bis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bing
3 ch
bis

Look-alike desk: bing vs bis

A purely visual mix-up. bing (/bɪŋ/) and bis (/baɪz/) 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 30874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bing is recorded at frequency rank #12,377, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɪŋ/. bis is at rank #18,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced /baɪz/.

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 30874, this pair ranks #350,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bing vs bis

Shared letters: bi. Private to "bing": gn. Private to "bis": s.

"bing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bingbbing · bign · bingg · binng · bnig · ibng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bing" and "bis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bɪŋ/ versus /baɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bing" vs "bis" - which ranks higher?
"bing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,377 in our English list, against #18,497 for "bis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "bing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bing" and "bis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BFS vs bis". 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 #350,886 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