bender
/ˈbɛndə/
"bender" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bender” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,085 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,085
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One who, or that which, bends.
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 | bender |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɛndə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,085 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bender” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bender is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɛndə/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,085 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for bender, with forms such as "bbender", "bedner", and "bendder". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bene", "bends", "boner", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Hypotheses: * bend + -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846, of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink (bend one's elbow)) or perhaps fro… The correct English form is bender, spelled B-E-N-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1One who, or that which, bends.
- 2A device to aid bending of pipes to a specific angle.
- 3A bout of heavy drinking.
- 4A homosexual man.
- 5A simple shelter, made using flexible branches or withies.
- 6A suspended sentence.
- 7A sixpence.
- 8A spree, a frolic.
- 9Something exceptional.
Etymology
Hypotheses: * bend + -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846, of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink (bend one's elbow)) or perhaps from Scottish sense of “strong drinker”. * In Britain, for about four centuries, a sixpence was known as a bender because its silver content made it easy to bend in the hands. This was commonly done to create ‘love tokens’, many of which survive in collections to this day. The value of a sixpence was also enough to get thoroughly inebriated as taverns would often allow you to drink all day for two pence. This gave rise to the expression ‘going on a bender’. * (interjection): From over the bender, referring to a person's arm (and sometimes accompanied by a gesture of the thumb backward over the shoulder); compare over the left shoulder.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbender,bedner,bendder,benderr,bendre,benedr,bennder,bneder,ebnder
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bender - 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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Using “bender”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-N-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɛndə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bene” - see the side-by-side comparison. bender vs bene
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.