Skip to main content
PlainSpell

bin

/ˈbɪn/noun, verb, contraction

bin is spelled B-I-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bin means “A box, frame, crib, or enclosed place, used as a storage container” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bin is bins.

How many letters and syllables are in bin?

Letters3: B-I-N
Syllables1
In writing17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bin?

Bin appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th 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 bin?

  • /ˈbɪn/
  • [ˈbɪn]

Bin has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bin

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

been vs bin0 B
ben vs bin0 B

Sounds like: been (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: been, ben.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with bin?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bin.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ibn, nib.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bin

  • bins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • binning participle, present
  • binned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bin mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A box, frame, crib, or enclosed place, used as a storage container.

    a corn bin

  2. 2

    A container for rubbish or waste.

    a rubbish bin

  3. 3

    Any of the discrete intervals in a histogram, etc

  4. 4

    Any of the fixed-size chunks into which airspace is divided for the purposes of radar.

  5. 5

    slangJail or prison.

  6. 6

    slangEllipsis of loony bin (“lunatic asylum”).

  7. 7

    A digital file folder for organising media in a non-linear editing program.

  8. 8

    son of; equivalent to Hebrew בן (ben).

  9. 9

    Clipping of binary.

verb

  1. 1

    UKinformalTo dispose of (something) by putting it into a bin, or as if putting it into a bin.

  2. 2

    UKinformalTo throw away, reject, give up.

  3. 3

    To convert continuous data into discrete groups.

  4. 4

    To place into a bin for storage.

    to bin wine

contraction

  1. 1

    Contraction of being.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchboîte, conteneur (container used for storage), poubelle (container for rubbish), benner (informal: dispose of in a bin or as if in a bin)
GermanTonne (container used for storage), Mülltonne (container for rubbish)
Portuguesetonel (container used for storage), latão (container for rubbish)
Spanishbote (container used for storage), bote (de basura), caneca (container for rubbish)

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 bin come from?

From Middle English bynne, from Old English binn (“crib, manger”), from Late Latin benna or a Celtic language, possibly Proto-Brythonic *benn (“cart, carriage”) (whence Middle Welsh benn, Old Breton benn (“caisson”), modern Welsh ben), from Proto-Celtic *bend(n)ā (whence Gaulish benna). Compare German Benne (“wheelbarrow”) and Middle Dutch benne (“basket”), whence modern Dutch ben and as a borrowing, West Frisian bin (both "wicker basket").

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bin