bind
/baɪnd/
"bind" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bind” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,331 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #10,331
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To tie; to confine by any ligature.
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 | bind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /baɪnd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #10,331 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bind” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bind is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /baɪnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,331 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for bind, with forms such as "bbind", "bidn", and "bindd". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bn", "bit", "bud", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-West Germanic *bindan Old English bindan Middle English binden English bind From Middle English binden, from Old English bindan, from Proto-West Germanic *bindan, from Proto-Germa… The correct English form is bind, spelled B-I-N-D.
Definition
- 1To tie; to confine by any ligature.
- 2To cohere or stick together in a mass.
- 3To be restrained from motion, or from customary or natural action, as by friction.
- 4To exert a binding or restraining influence.
- 5To tie or fasten tightly together, with a cord, band, ligature, chain, etc.
- 6To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind.
- 7To couple.
- 8To oblige, restrain, or hold, by authority, law, duty, promise, vow, affection, or other social tie.
- 9To put (a person) under definite legal obligations, especially, under the obligation of a bond or covenant.
- 10To place under legal obligation to serve.
- 11To protect or strengthen by applying a band or binding, as the edge of a carpet or garment.
- 12To make fast (a thing) about or upon something, as by tying; to encircle with something.
- 13To cover, as with a bandage.
- 14To prevent or restrain from customary or natural action, as by producing constipation.
- 15To put together in a cover, as of books.
- 16To make two or more elements stick together.
- 17To associate an identifier with a value; to associate a variable name, method name, etc. with the content of a storage location.
- 18To process one or more object modules into an executable program.
- 19To complain; to whine about something.
- 20To wear a binder so as to flatten one's chest to give the appearance of a flat chest, usually done by trans men.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-West Germanic *bindan Old English bindan Middle English binden English bind From Middle English binden, from Old English bindan, from Proto-West Germanic *bindan, from Proto-Germanic *bindaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéndʰ-e-ti, from *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). See also West Frisian bine, Dutch binden, Low German binnen, binden, German binden, Danish binde; also Welsh ben (“cart”), Latin offendīx (“knot, band”), Lithuanian beñdras (“partner”), Albanian bind (“to convince, to awe, to spell”), Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “cable, rope”), Persian بستن (bastan, “to bind”), Sanskrit बन्धति (bándhati). Doublet of bandana.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbind,bidn,bindd,binnd,bnid,ibnd
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bind - 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
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Using “bind”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /baɪnd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bn” - see the side-by-side comparison. bind vs bn
- 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.