bleak
/bliːk/adjective, noun
bleak is spelled B-L-E-A-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, bleak means “Without color; pale; pallid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bleak?
| Letters | 5: B-L-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is bleak?
Bleak appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th 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 bleak?
- /bliːk/
Bleak 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-bleak.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bleak?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bleak.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: blake.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of bleak
- bleaker comparative
- bleakest superlative
- bleaks plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bleak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Without color; pale; pallid.
- 2
Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
a bleak and bare rock
- 3
Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
Downtown Albany felt bleak that February after the divorce.
noun
- 1
A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bleak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | morne, terne , ablette |
| German | farblos, bleich, ausgeblichen , öde, ungeschützt, trostlos |
| Portuguese | pálido , alburnete , desolado , desanimado |
| Spanish | sin color, pálido , desolado, yermo , sin alegría, amargado |
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 bleak come from?
From Middle English bleke (also bleche, whence the English doublet bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English blǣc, blǣċ, blāc (“bleak, pale, pallid”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), all from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).