blast
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "blast", 5-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 "blast" 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 "blast" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
blast is aEnglishnoun. It means: A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle). Pronounced /blɑːst/. It ranks #4,140 in English word frequency. Often confused with BLS and boat.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | blast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /blɑːst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,140 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for blast is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /blɑːst/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,140 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for blast, with forms such as "balst", "bblast", and "blasst". 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, "BLS", "boat", "bust", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English blast, blest, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāstu, from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), o… 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 blast, spelled B-L-A-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).
- 2A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the tuyeres of a blast furnace, a person's mouth, etc.
- 3A hit of a recreational drug from a pipe.
- 4The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace.
- 5The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
- 6An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.
- 7A verbal attack or punishment; a severe criticism or reprimand.
- 8An explosive charge for blasting.
- 9A loud, sudden sound.
- 10Unwanted noise from a microphone.
- 11A sudden pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.
- 12A good time; an enjoyable moment.
- 13A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.
- 14A flatulent disease of sheep.
- 15A period of full dosage of PEDs as opposed to a period of reduced intake.
Etymology
From Middle English blast, blest, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāstu, from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”), German blasen (“to blow”), Dutch blazen (“to blow”), Danish blæst (“wind”), French blaser (“to blunt, dull”). More at blow.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: balst,bblast,blasst,blastt,blats,bllast,blsat,lbast
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for blast
Misspelling Variants of "blast"
Frequency rank: #4,140 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: