bight
/baɪt/noun, verb
bight is spelled B-I-G-H-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “bight vs bite” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, bight means “A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bight is bights.
How many letters and syllables are in bight?
| Letters | 5: B-I-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 43,187th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is bight?
Bight appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce bight?
- /baɪt/
Bight has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bight.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bight
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bite, byte (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of bight
- bights plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- bighting participle, present
- bighted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bight mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
the bight of a horse's knee
- 2
An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf.
- 3
A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
- 4
A curve in a rope.
verb
- 1
To arrange or fasten (a rope) in bights.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | sangradura , ensenada |
| French | baie |
| German | Bucht |
| Portuguese | enseada |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does bight come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).