bank
/ˈbæŋk/noun, verb
bank is spelled B-A-N-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “banc vs bank” about 210 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, bank means “An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bank is banks.
How many letters and syllables are in bank?
| Letters | 4: B-A-N-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 145 times per million words; the 711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 bank?
Bank appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th 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 bank?
- US /ˈbæŋk/
- US [ˈbæŋk]
- British /ˈbaŋk/
Bank has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bank.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bank
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: banque.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with bank?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bank from its last stressed vowel (/æŋk/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: knab, nabk.
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 bank
- banks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- banking participle, present
- banked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bank mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
- 2
A branch office of such an institution.
- 3
An underwriter or controller of a card game.
- 4
A fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital.
- 5
The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses.
- 6
slangMoney; profit.
- 7
In certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw.
- 8
A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods.
blood bank; data bank; sperm bank
- 9
An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
- 10
An elevation under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth
the banks of Newfoundland
- 11
A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
- 12
The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
- 13
An incline, a hill.
- 14
A mass of clouds.
The bank of clouds on the horizon announced the arrival of the predicted storm front.
- 15
The face of the coal at which miners are working.
- 16
A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
- 17
A row or panel of items stored or grouped together.
a bank of switches
- 18
A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard.
- 19
A contiguous block of memory that is of fixed, hardware-dependent size, but often larger than a page and partitioning the memory such that two distinct banks do not overlap.
- 20
A set of multiple adjacent drop targets.
- 21
A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars.
- 22
A bench or seat for judges in court.
- 23
The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius, or a court held for jury trials. See banc
- 24
archaicA kind of table used by printers.
- 25
A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.
verb
- 1
To deal with a bank or financial institution, or for an institution to provide financial services to a client.
He banked with Barclays.
- 2
To put into a bank (financial institution).
I’m going to bank the money.
- 3
To store in a bank (storage).
- 4
slangTo conceal in the rectum for use in prison.
Johnny banked some coke for me.
- 5
To provide banking services to.
They proposed an ambitious plan to bank people in remote rural communities.
- 6
To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
- 7
To cause (an aircraft) to bank.
- 8
To form into a bank or heap, to bank up.
to bank sand
- 9
To form a bank; to gather in masses.
- 10
To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat.
- 11
To raise a mound or dike about; to enclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank.
- 12
obsoleteTo pass by the banks of.
- 13
UKTo provide additional power for a train ascending a bank (incline) by attaching another locomotive.
- 14
To arrange or order in a row.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bank in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | banque , rive , banc , rang |
| German | Bank , Ufer , Sparschwein |
| Portuguese | banco , banqueiro , caixa , banca , monte , depositar |
| Spanish | banca, banco , ahorrar, depositar , sucursal , tener la cuenta en |
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 bank come from?
Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).