blight
/blaɪt/
"blight" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“blight” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #21,145 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,145
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one cause...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | blight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /blaɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #21,145 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “blight” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for blight is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /blaɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #21,145 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for blight, with forms such as "bblight", "bilght", and "blgiht". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "bought", "bright", "blighted", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: The etymology of the noun is uncertain; suggested derivations include the following: * possibly related to Middle English blichening (“mildew or rust on grain, blight”), possibly related to Middle English bliken (“to gleam, shine; to turn pale”), from Old E… The correct English form is blight, spelled B-L-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one caused by a fungus; a mildew, a rust, a smut.
- 2The cause of such a condition, often unseen but believed to be airborne; specifically, a bacterium, a virus, or (especially) a fungus; also, an aphid which attacks fruit trees.
- 3A state of cloudy, humid weather.
- 4A diseased condition of the face or skin; specifically, bleeding under the conjunctiva of the eye, a form of skin rash, or a palsy of the face due to cold.
- 5Something that impedes development or growth, or spoils any other aspect of life.
- 6A rundown and unsightly condition of an urban area; also, such an area.
Etymology
The etymology of the noun is uncertain; suggested derivations include the following: * possibly related to Middle English blichening (“mildew or rust on grain, blight”), possibly related to Middle English bliken (“to gleam, shine; to turn pale”), from Old English blīcan (“to shine, sparkle”) (whence modern English blike (“(obsolete) to gleam, shine”); also compare Old Norse blikna (“to grow pallid”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blīkan (“to shine”), from Proto-Germanic *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”); or * since noun sense 2.2 is a diseased condition of the skin, possibly from Middle English *bleighte, *bleȝte, from Old English blǣcþa (“leprosy”) (related to blǣċe (“an itching skin-disease”) and blǣċo (“leprosy; paleness”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blaik, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale; white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). If so, the word is a doublet of bleak. The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bblight,bilght,blgiht,bligght,blighht,blightt,bligth,blihgt,bllight,lbight
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of blight - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "blight"?
What does "blight" mean?
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Using “blight”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-L-I-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /blaɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bought” - see the side-by-side comparison. blight vs bought
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.