bleach
[blit͡ʃ]noun, verb
bleach is spelled B-L-E-A-C-H: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bleach means “A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bleach is bleaches.
How many letters and syllables are in bleach?
| Letters | 6: B-L-E-A-C-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is bleach?
Bleach appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce bleach?
- /bliːt͡ʃ/
- US [blit͡ʃ]
- UK [bliːt͡ʃ]
Bleach has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bleach.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of bleach
- bleaches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- bleaching participle, present
- bleached participle, past
- bleacher comparative
- more bleach comparative
- bleachest superlative
- most bleach superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bleach mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
- 2
A variety of bleach.
- 3
An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
- 4
obsoleteA disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.
verb
- 1
To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
- 2
To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
- 3
To lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
Once coral bleaching begins, corals tend to continue to bleach even if the stressor is removed.
- 4
To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
semantically bleached words that have become illocutionary particles
adjective
- 1
archaicPale; bleak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bleach in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | eau de Javel, javel , blanchir |
| German | Bleiche, Bleichmittel , bleichen |
| Portuguese | lixívia, descorante, alvejante, água sanitária, descolorante , branquear |
| Spanish | lejía, lavandina, blanqueador, cloro, recuelo , blanquear |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does bleach come from?
From Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaikijan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).