# blanket

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈblæŋkɪt/ · frequency rank #6,336

## Definitions
1. A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting.
2. A covering layer of anything.
3. A thick rubber mat used in the offset printing process to transfer ink from the plate to the paper being printed.
4. A streak or layer of blubber in whales.

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English blanket, blonket, blaunket, from Old Northern French blanket, blancet (“white horse", also "white woollen cloth or flannel; a type of jacket”, literally “that which is white”) (whence Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc (“white”), of Germanic origin (compare Old English blanca (“white horse”); see more at blank). Furthermore, the sense "white woollen cloth" is likely a calque of Old English hwītel (“blanket; cloak, mantle”), from Old English hwīt (“white”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare also Old Norse hvítill (“a white bed-cover, sheet”), Norwegian kvitel (“blanket”).
Compare also blunket, plunket. Displaced native Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (whence Modern English whittle (“blanket, cloak, shawl”)).

## Easily confused with
- **bracket** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blanket-vs-bracket)
- **blankly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blanket-vs-blankly)
- **blankets** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blanket-vs-blankets)
- **blake** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blake-vs-blanket)
- **blank** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blank-vs-blanket)
- **basket** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/basket-vs-blanket)
- **banker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/banker-vs-blanket)
- **banked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/banked-vs-blanket)
- **blacked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blacked-vs-blanket)
- **blacker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blacker-vs-blanket)
- **blanked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blanked-vs-blanket)
- **blackest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/blackest-vs-blanket)

## Common misspellings (11)
`balnket`, `bblanket`, `blaknet`, `blanekt`, `blankett`, `blankket`, `blankte`, `blannket`, `bllanket`, `blnaket`, `lbanket`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/blanket