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PlainSpell

bone

/boʊn/noun, adjective, verb, adverb

bone is spelled B-O-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bone means “A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bone is bones or 'bones.

How many letters and syllables are in bone?

Letters4: B-O-N-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing30 times per million words; the 3,161st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 bone?

Bone appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st 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 bone?

  • UK /bəʊn/
  • US /boʊn/
  • Australia /bəʉn/

Bone has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bone.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_bone.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bone

Also written: bane.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with bone?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bone from its last stressed vowel (/oʊn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ebon.

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 bone

  • bones plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • boning participle, present
  • boned participle, past
  • 'bones plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bone mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.

  2. 2

    Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of this material.

  3. 3

    A bone of a fish; a fishbone.

  4. 4

    A bonefish.

  5. 5

    One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.

  6. 6

    One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.

  7. 7

    Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.

  8. 8

    The framework of anything.

  9. 9

    slangClipping of trombone.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

verb

  1. 1

    To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.

  2. 2

    To fertilize with bone.

  3. 3

    To put whalebone into.

  4. 4

    To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.

    boning rod

  5. 5

    slangvulgarTo have sexual intercourse (with).

  6. 6

    AustraliadatedTo perform “bone pointing”, a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.

  7. 7

    To study.

    bone up

  8. 8

    To polish boots to a shiny finish.

  9. 9

    slangTo apprehend, steal.

  10. 10

    To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.

adverb

  1. 1

    Used before an adjective as an intensifier

noun

as Bone
  1. 1

    slangA Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bone in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchos (material), arête (fishbone), baleine (corset part), nonos, sucette (reward), désosser (to remove bones)
GermanKnochen, Gebeine, Bein (material), entbeinen, ausbeinen (to remove bones), Chnoche (component of a skeleton)
Portugueseosso (material), espinha (fishbone), desossar (to remove bones), transar, foder, comer (slang: have sexual intercourse with)
Spanishhueso (material), espina (fishbone), deshuesar, quitar las espinas (to remove bones), joder con (slang: have sexual intercourse with), osiforme (Translations)

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 bone come from?

From Middle English bon, from Old English bān (“bone, tusk; the bone of a limb”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone”), from *bainaz (“straight”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike, beat”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bone