bones
/boʊnz/noun, verb
bones is spelled B-O-N-E-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,153rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bones means “A percussive folk musical instrument played as a pair in one hand, often made from bovine ribs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bones?
| Letters | 5: B-O-N-E-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,153rd 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 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 bones?
Bones appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,153rd 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 bones?
- UK /bəʊnz/
- US /boʊnz/
Bones 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-bones.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bones?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bones from its last stressed vowel (/oʊnz/):
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).
What does bones mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A percussive folk musical instrument played as a pair in one hand, often made from bovine ribs.
- 2
Dice for gambling.
- 3
informalSynonym of fist bump.
- 4
The framework or foundation of something.
- 5
plural of bone
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of bone
noun
- 1
A surgeon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does bones come from?
From sawbones.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).