bin
/bɪn/
"bin" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bin” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,920 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,920
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A box, frame, crib, or enclosed place, used as a storage container.
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 | bin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɪn/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #4,920 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bin” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bin is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,920 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bin, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BS", "bo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 *be… The correct English form is bin, spelled B-I-N.
Definition
- 1A box, frame, crib, or enclosed place, used as a storage container.
- 2A container for rubbish or waste.
- 3Any of the discrete intervals in a histogram, etc
- 4Any of the fixed-size chunks into which airspace is divided for the purposes of radar.
- 5Jail or prison.
- 6Ellipsis of loony bin (“lunatic asylum”).
- 7A digital file folder for organising media in a non-linear editing program.
Etymology
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").
This word in other languages
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 “bin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. bin vs by
- 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.