bokeh
bo·keh/ˈboʊ.kə/noun
bokeh is spelled B-O-K-E-H: 5 letters and 2 syllables (bo·keh). It appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 72,332nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bokeh means “A subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bokeh is bokehs.
How many letters and syllables are in bokeh?
| Letters | 5: B-O-K-E-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: bo·keh |
| In writing | about once in every 6 million words; the 72,332nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 bokeh?
Bokeh appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 72,332nd 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 bokeh?
- UK /ˈbəʊ.kə/
- UK /ˈbəʊˌkeɪ/
- US /ˈboʊ.kə/
Bokeh has 2 syllables, split bo·keh in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-bokeh.ogg, En-us-bokeh.ogg, En-us-bokeh2.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bokeh?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bokeh from its last stressed vowel (/oʊkə/):
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 bokeh
- bokehs plural
- boke
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bokeh mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bokeh in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bokeh |
| German | Bokeh |
| Portuguese | bokeh |
| Spanish | bokeh |
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 bokeh come from?
Learned borrowing from Japanese 暈(ぼ)け (boke, “blur”), the nominalized form of 暈(ぼ)ける (bokeru, “to blur”). The terminal -h, absent in the romanization boke, is a pronunciation guide so that it is not pronounced as /boʊk/ as it would be under standard English orthography. Contrast karate and karaoke, which have undergone sound changes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).