bondage
bond·age/ˈbɑn.dɪd͡ʒ/noun
bondage is spelled B-O-N-D-A-G-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (bond·age). It appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bondage means “The state of being enslaved or the practice of slavery” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bondage is bondages.
How many letters and syllables are in bondage?
| Letters | 7: B-O-N-D-A-G-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: bond·age |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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 bondage?
Bondage appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th 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 bondage?
- UK /ˈbɒn.dɪd͡ʒ/
- /ˈbɔn.dɪdʒ/
- US /ˈbɑn.dɪd͡ʒ/
Bondage has 2 syllables, split bond·age in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bondage.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bondage?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bondage (/ɑndɪdʒ/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dogbane.
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 bondage
- bondages plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bondage mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state of being enslaved or the practice of slavery.
debt bondage
- 2
The state of lacking freedom; constraint.
He lived in financial bondage to his cocaine habit; no matter how much he earned, it all seemed to disappear up his nose.
- 3
The practice of physically restraining people for sexual pleasure, such as by tying up or shackling.
Their marriage broke up when she discovered he had been engaging in bondage games with a local dominatrix while he was supposedly working out at the gym.
- 4
Applied to clothing with many buckles, zips, etc., associated with punk and goth subcultures.
bondage trousers; bondage jeans; bondage pants
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bondage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | esclavage, servitude , bondage |
| German | Sklaverei , Bondage , Pflicht |
| Portuguese | escravidão |
| Spanish | bondage , sujeción |
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 bondage come from?
Inherited from Middle English bondage (“serfdom”), from British Medieval Latin bondagium (“an inferior tenure held by a bond or husbandman”), from Middle English bond (“tenant farmer, serf”), from Old English bonda (“householder, husband, head of a family”), of Old Norse origin. Sense development influenced by the unrelated terms bond and bind.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).