bight
/baɪt/
"bight" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bight” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #43,057. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #43,057
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
Corpus desk
Index EN-bight · bight · English
bight · rank #43,057 · 8 variants · 14 confusables
- FREQ-MID #43,057
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-MID 14 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bilge
Nearest frequency peer: bilge (+1 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “bight”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- benthic
benthic
56,948 corpus weight
- berated
berated
56,947 corpus weight
- Bernal
Bernal
56,946 corpus weight
- bight
bight
56,944 corpus weight
- bilge
bilge
56,943 corpus weight
- biohazard
biohazard
56,942 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “bight” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | bight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /baɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,057 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bight” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around bight (IPA /baɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #43,057 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for bight, with forms such as "bbight", "bgiht", and "bigght". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "bit", "bigot", "Bligh", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bight, biȝt, byȝt (also bought, bowght, bouȝt; see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Germanic *beuganą (“to bend, … The correct English form is bight, spelled B-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
- 2An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf.
- 3A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
- 4A curve in a rope.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
the bight of a horse's knee
the bight of an elbow
Etymology
From Middle English bight, biȝt, byȝt (also bought, bowght, bouȝt; see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Germanic *beuganą (“to bend, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewgʰ- (“to bend”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian boch, bocht, bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Saterland Frisian Bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), West Frisian bocht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Dutch bocht (“bay, bight”), German Bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Icelandic bót (“bight, cove, small bay”); also Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”), Ukrainian бга́ти (bháty, “to crumple, twist”), Sanskrit भुज् (bhuj, “to bend, curve; to sweep”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbight
- bgiht
- bigght
- bighht
- bightt
- bigth
- bihgt
- ibght
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bight - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "bight"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bight", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "bight". Here's where to go from here.
- "bight" maps to 14 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "bit". View pair
- 8 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #43,057 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.