bast
/bɑːst/
"bast" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bast” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #47,486. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #47,486
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bast · bast · English
bast · rank #47,486 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #47,486
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH banc
Nearest frequency peer: banc (-2 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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “bast”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- babbitt
babbitt
52,521 corpus weight
- banc
banc
52,517 corpus weight
- bast
bast
52,515 corpus weight
- bests
bests
52,511 corpus weight
- Beulah
Beulah
52,510 corpus weight
- Biafra
Biafra
52,509 corpus weight
What this shows “bast” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | bast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɑːst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #47,486 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “bast”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around bast (IPA /bɑːst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #47,486 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for bast, with forms such as "abst", "basst", and "bastt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BS", "Bt", "but", 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 bast, from Old English bæst (“bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast, from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“bast, rope”) (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration o… The correct English form is bast, spelled B-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.
- 2Fibre made from the phloem of certain plants (particularly the lime tree) and used for making ropes, cords and matting.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]here would be seen his face, or that of his elder brother, peering down. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of bast slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs, and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking[…]
At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.
Etymology
From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (“bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast, from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“bast, rope”) (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (“bundle”) (compare Middle Irish basc (“necklace”), Latin fascis (“bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“tied, linked”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abst
- basst
- bastt
- bbast
- bsat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bast - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bast", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).