bale
/beɪl/
"bale" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bale” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,731) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #12,731
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bale · bale · English
bale · rank #12,731 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,731
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Barton
Nearest frequency peer: Barton (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “bale”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- arthritis
arthritis
87,274 corpus weight
- ay
ay
87,272 corpus weight
- bale
bale
87,270 corpus weight
- Barton
Barton
87,269 corpus weight
- beaver
beaver
87,268 corpus weight
- Brunswick
Brunswick
87,266 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “bale” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /beɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #12,731 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bale” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for bale is neighbouring look-alikes ("be", "BL", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /beɪl/. Frequency #12,731 among 4,121 “B” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bale, with forms such as "bael", "balle", and "bbale". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "be", "BL", "bar", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą. Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse … The correct English form is bale, spelled B-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
- 2Suffering, woe, torment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
That other ſwayne, like aſhes deadly pale, Lay in the lap of death, rewing his wretched bale.
Rome, and her Rats, are at the point of battell, The one ſide muſt haue baile.
Etymology
From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą. Cognate with Low German bal- (“bad, ill”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bael
- balle
- bbale
- blae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bale - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bale", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "bale". Here's where to go from here.
- "bale" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "be". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #12,731 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.