bonfire
/ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/
"bonfire" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bonfire” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,771 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,771
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
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) |
Where “bonfire” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bonfire is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,771 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “bonfire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-N-F-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Bonnie” - see the side-by-side comparison. bonfire vs Bonnie
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.