bend
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bend", 4-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 "bend" 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 "bend" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bend is aEnglishverb. It means: To cause (something) to change its shape into a curve, by physical force, chemical action, or any other means. Pronounced /bɛnd/. It ranks #5,762 in English word frequency. Often confused with bn and bet.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bend |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɛnd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,762 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bend is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɛnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,762 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for bend, with forms such as "bbend", "bedn", and "bendd". 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, "bn", "bet", "BID", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *bandijaną Proto-West Germanic *bandijan Old English bendan Middle English benden English ben… 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 bend, spelled B-E-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To cause (something) to change its shape into a curve, by physical force, chemical action, or any other means.
- 2To become curved.
- 3To cause to change direction.
- 4To change direction.
- 5To be inclined; to direct itself.
- 6To stoop.
- 7To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
- 8To force to submit.
- 9To submit.
- 10To apply to a task or purpose.
- 11To apply oneself to a task or purpose.
- 12To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
- 13To tie, as in securing a line to a cleat; to shackle a chain to an anchor; make fast.
- 14To smoothly change the pitch of a note.
- 15To swing the body when rowing.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *bandijaną Proto-West Germanic *bandijan Old English bendan Middle English benden English bend From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bind or bend (a bow), fetter, restrain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bandijan, from Proto-Germanic *bandijaną (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind, tie”). Cognate with Middle High German benden (“to fetter”), Danish bænde (“to bend”), Norwegian bende (“to bend”), Faroese benda (“to bend, inflect”), Icelandic benda (“to bend”). Related to bind, band, bond.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbend,bedn,bendd,bennd,bned,ebnd
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bend
Misspelling Variants of "bend"
Frequency rank: #5,762 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: