bist
"bist" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bist” is uncommon English (frequency #85,039 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,039
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Used to form the second person singular of be.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bist |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #85,039 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bist” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bist is uncommon English at frequency #85,039 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Used to form the second person singular of be.".
bist has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bist, beest, best, from Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to be + -est. Cognate with West Frisian bist (“(thou) art”), Low German büst (“(thou… The correct English form is bist, spelled B-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1Used to form the second person singular of be.
Etymology
From Middle English bist, beest, best, from Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to be + -est. Cognate with West Frisian bist (“(thou) art”), Low German büst (“(thou) art”), German bist (“(thou) art”).
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 “bist”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.