bolt
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bolt", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bolt" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bolt" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bolt is aEnglishnoun. It means: A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body that is threaded, with a larger head on one end. It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to the head, with a nut then threaded on t... Pronounced /bɒlt/. It ranks #6,659 in English word frequency. Often confused with Bt and but.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bolt |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɒlt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,659 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bolt is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɒlt/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,659 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for bolt, with forms such as "bbolt", "bollt", and "boltt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Bt", "but", "boy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch an… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bolt, spelled B-O-L-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body that is threaded, with a larger head on one end. It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to the head, with a nut then threaded on the other end; a heavy machine screw.
- 2Latch-related senses
- 3Latch-related senses
- 4Latch-related senses
- 5An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter.
- 6A stalk or scape (of garlic, onion, etc).
- 7A large roll of fabric or similar material, as a bolt of cloth.
- 8A large roll of fabric or similar material, as a bolt of cloth.
- 9Senses involving sudden movement
- 10Senses involving sudden movement
- 11Senses involving sudden movement
- 12Senses involving sudden movement
- 13Senses involving sudden movement
- 14Senses involving sudden movement
- 15Senses involving sudden movement
Etymology
From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti. The association of thunder and lightning with 'bolts' is found back into prehistory in many cultures, at least in Eurasia. It comes from the long-standing widespread belief that lightning was caused by bolts, darts, or stones hurtling down from the sky to the earth. This belief was still regarded as commonplace until at least 1929.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbolt,bollt,boltt,botl,oblt
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bolt
Misspelling Variants of "bolt"
Frequency rank: #6,659 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: