bench
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bench", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bench" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bench" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bench is aEnglishnoun. It means: A long seat with or without a back, found for example in parks and schools. Pronounced /bɛnt͡ʃ/. It ranks #3,671 in English word frequency. Often confused with bend and bent.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bench |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɛnt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,671 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bench is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɛnt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,671 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 16 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for bench, with forms such as "bbench", "becnh", and "bencch". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bend", "bent", "beth", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bench, benk, bynk, from Old English benċ (“bench”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-. Cognate with Scots benk, bink (“bench”), West Frisian bank (“bench”), Dutch bank… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bench, spelled B-E-N-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A long seat with or without a back, found for example in parks and schools.
- 2The seat where the judges sit in court.
- 3The seat where the judges sit in court.
- 4A seat where people sit together in an official capacity.
- 5A seat where people sit together in an official capacity.
- 6A seat where people sit together in an official capacity.
- 7The place where players (substitutes) and coaches sit when not playing.
- 8The place where players (substitutes) and coaches sit when not playing.
- 9A place where assembly or hand work is performed; a workbench.
- 10A horizontal padded surface, usually adjustable in height and inclination and often with attached weight rack, used for proper posture during exercise.
- 11A bracket used to mount land surveying equipment onto a stone or a wall.
- 12A flat ledge in the slope of an earthwork, work of masonry, or similar.
- 13A thin strip of relatively flat land bounded by steeper slopes above and below.
- 14A kitchen surface on which to prepare food, a counter.
- 15A bathroom surface which holds the washbasin, a vanity.
- 16A collection or group of dogs exhibited to the public, traditionally on benches or raised platforms.
Etymology
From Middle English bench, benk, bynk, from Old English benċ (“bench”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-. Cognate with Scots benk, bink (“bench”), West Frisian bank (“bench”), Dutch bank (“bench”), German Bank (“bench”), Danish bænk (“bench”), Swedish bänk (“bench”), Icelandic bekkur (“bench”). Doublet of banc, banco, and bank.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbench,becnh,bencch,benchh,benhc,bennch,bnech,ebnch
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bench
Misspelling Variants of "bench"
Frequency rank: #3,671 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: