bleat
/ˈbliːt/
"bleat" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bleat” is uncommon English (frequency #82,109 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,109
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bleat · bleat · English
bleat · rank #82,109 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,109
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH blart
Nearest frequency peer: blart (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “bleat”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- blart
blart
17,893 corpus weight
- bleat
bleat
17,892 corpus weight
- Bleeker
Bleeker
17,891 corpus weight
- blinkered
blinkered
17,890 corpus weight
- bloodstone
bloodstone
17,888 corpus weight
- bluefish
bluefish
17,886 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bleat” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bleat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbliːt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #82,109 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bleat” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bleat is uncommon English at frequency #82,109 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbliːt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bleat, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bleten, from Old English blǣtan (“to bleat”), from Proto-West Germanic *blātijan, from Proto-Germanic *blētijaną (“to bleat”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to howl, cry, bleat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to mak… The correct English form is bleat, spelled B-L-E-A-T.
Definition
- 1The characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.
Etymology
From Middle English bleten, from Old English blǣtan (“to bleat”), from Proto-West Germanic *blātijan, from Proto-Germanic *blētijaną (“to bleat”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to howl, cry, bleat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to make a loud noise”). Cognate with Scots blete, bleit, West Frisian bâlte, blaaien, blêtsje (“to bleat”), Dutch blaten (“to bleat”), Low German bleten (“to bleat”), German blaßen, blässen (“to bleat”).
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bleat", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).