Which to use
“bond” is a noun and “bound” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,517
- “bond” frequency rank
- #3,212
- “bound” frequency rank
- 5729
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bond | bound |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A document constituting evidence of a long-term debt, by which the bond issuer (the borrower) is obliged to pay interest when due, and repay the principal at maturity, as specified on the face of the bond certificate. The rights of the holder are specified in the bond indenture, which contains the legal terms and conditions under which the bond was issued. Bonds are available in two forms: registered bonds, and bearer bonds. | simple past and past participle of bind |
Where the eye mixes bond and bound
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bond is /bɒnd/ while bound is /ˈbaʊnd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bond is recorded at frequency rank #2,517, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɒnd/. bound is at rank #3,212, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbaʊnd/.
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 5729, this pair ranks #514,224 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bond vs bound
Shared letters: bdno. Private to "bond": -. Private to "bound": u.
"bond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bound" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC