bind
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bind", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bind" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bind" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bind is aEnglishverb. It means: To tie; to confine by any ligature. Pronounced /baɪnd/. Often confused with bn and bit.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bind is 4 letters long, classified as averb, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for bind, with forms such as "bbind", "bidn", and "bindd". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bn", "bit", "bud", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
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… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bind, spelled B-I-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bind
Misspelling Variants of "bind"
Frequency rank: #10,331 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: