blister
/ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/
"blister" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“blister” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,840 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,840
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small bubble between the layers of the skin that contains watery or bloody fluid and is caused by friction and pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease, or infection.
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 | blister |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #28,840 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “blister” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for blister is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,840 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for blister, with forms such as "bblister", "bilster", and "blisetr". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "buster", "booster", "bolster", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English blister, from Old French blestre, from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Dutch blyster (“swelling”), Old Norse blastr (“a blowing”). The correct English form is blister, spelled B-L-I-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A small bubble between the layers of the skin that contains watery or bloody fluid and is caused by friction and pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease, or infection.
- 2A swelling on a plant.
- 3Something applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory or other applied medicine.
- 4A bubble, as on a painted surface.
- 5An enclosed pocket of air, which may be mixed with water or solvent vapor, trapped between impermeable layers of felt or between the membrane and substrate.
- 6A type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities.
- 7A cause of annoyance.
- 8A form of smelted copper with a blistered surface.
Etymology
From Middle English blister, from Old French blestre, from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Dutch blyster (“swelling”), Old Norse blastr (“a blowing”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bblister,bilster,blisetr,blisster,blisterr,blistre,blistter,blitser,bllister,blsiter,lbister
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of blister - 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
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Using “blister”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-L-I-S-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “buster” - see the side-by-side comparison. blister vs buster
- 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.