bastide

noun

"bastide" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bastide” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mansion in Provence.

Corpus desk

Index EN-bastide · bastide · English

bastide · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for bastide
PropertyValue
Headwordbastide
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “bastide” in English

bastidesits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bastide is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for bastide in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French bastide, from Occitan. The correct English form is bastide, spelled B-A-S-T-I-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A mansion in Provence.
  2. 2
    A new town built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, and Aquitaine during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bastide appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. This gorgeous, well-restored eighteenth-century bastide is close to perfection. Nathalie runs the house as a brilliant mix of home and guest-wing.
  2. Special circumstances or special men have called it into brief activity. The ‘bastides’ and the ‘villes neuves’ of thirteenth-century France were founded at a particular period and under special circumstances, and, brief as the period was and governed by military urgencies, they were laid out on a more or less definite plan (p. 143).

Etymology

Borrowed from French bastide, from Occitan.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bastide"?
"bastide" is spelled B-A-S-T-I-D-E.
What does "bastide" mean?
As a noun, "bastide" means: A mansion in Provence.
What is the origin of the word "bastide"?
Borrowed from French bastide, from Occitan. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list