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PlainSpell

bale

/beɪl/noun, verb

bale is spelled B-A-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “bail vs bale” about 1,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, bale means “Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bale is bales.

How many letters and syllables are in bale?

Letters4: B-A-L-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bale?

Bale appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bale?

  • /beɪl/

Bale has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bale.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bale

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

bail vs bale1,600 G

Sounds like: bail (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with bale?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bale.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: able, beal, bael, albe.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bale

  • bales plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • baling participle, present
  • baled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bale mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.

  2. 2

    Suffering, woe, torment.

  3. 3

    A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.

  4. 4

    A bundle of compressed fibers (especially hay, straw, cotton, or wool), compacted for shipping and handling and bound by twine or wire.

  5. 5

    A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).

  6. 6

    A measurement of paper equal to 10 reams.

  7. 7

    A block of compressed cannabis.

  8. 8

    A group of turtles.

  9. 9

    obsoleteA large fire, a conflagration or bonfire.

  10. 10

    archaicA funeral pyre.

  11. 11

    archaicA beacon-fire.

verb

  1. 1

    To wrap into a bale.

  2. 2

    UKTo remove water from a boat with buckets etc.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchballot (rounded bundle of goods), botte (bundle of compressed wool or hay)
GermanBallen (rounded bundle of goods), paketieren (to wrap into a bale)
Portuguesefardo (rounded bundle of goods), enfardar (to wrap into a bale)
Spanishbala (rounded bundle of goods), embalar (to wrap into a bale)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bale come from?

From Middle English bale (“evil”), from Old English bealu, from Proto-West Germanic *balu, from Proto-Germanic *balwą.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bale