bonfire
/ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/
"bonfire" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bonfire” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #18,771. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #18,771
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bonfire · bonfire · English
bonfire · rank #18,771 · 10 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-MID #18,771
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH boating
Nearest frequency peer: boating (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “bonfire”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- blooming
blooming
81,233 corpus weight
- blooms
blooms
81,232 corpus weight
- boating
boating
81,231 corpus weight
- bonfire
bonfire
81,230 corpus weight
- bookings
bookings
81,229 corpus weight
- bowed
bowed
81,228 corpus weight
What this shows “bonfire” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bonfire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #18,771 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “bonfire”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around bonfire (IPA /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #18,771 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for bonfire, with forms such as "bbonfire", "bnofire", and "bofnire". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "Bonnie", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *péh₂wr̥ From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Diction… The correct English form is bonfire, spelled B-O-N-F-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
- 2A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.
- 3Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc.
- 4A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bonfire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
O thou art a perpetuall triumph, an euerlaſting bonefire light, […]
Theſe vvith the like diſtaſtures, diuulged among the rude multitude, it vvas a vvorld to ſee the face of this nevv VVorld, for in euery ſtreete Bonfires vvere made, in euery Church bels rung, Ditties vvere ſung at euery meeting, and euery man cryed K. Henry, King Henry, […]
Etymology
PIE word *péh₂wr̥ From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbonfire
- bnofire
- bofnire
- bonffire
- bonfier
- bonfirre
- bonfrie
- bonifre
- bonnfire
- obnfire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bonfire - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bonfire", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).