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bristle

/ˈbɹɪsəl/noun, verb

bristle is spelled B-R-I-S-T-L-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bristle means “A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bristle is bristles.

How many letters and syllables are in bristle?

Letters7: B-R-I-S-T-L-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 39,336th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 bristle?

Bristle appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th 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 bristle?

  • /ˈbɹɪsəl/
  • /ˈbɹʌsəl/
  • /ˈbɹɪstəl/

Bristle has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bristle.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-bristle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with bristle?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bristle.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: blister.

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 bristle

  • bristles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bristling participle, present
  • bristled participle, past

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

What does bristle mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A stiff or coarse hair on a nonhuman mammal or on a plant.

    the bristles of a pig

  2. 2

    A chaeta: an analogous filament on arthropods, annelids, or other animals.

  3. 3

    The hairs or other filaments that make up a brush, broom, or similar item, typically made from plant cellulose, animal hairs, or synthetic polymers.

verb

  1. 1

    To rise or stand erect, like bristles.

    His hair began to bristle with anger when the subject was mentioned.

  2. 2

    To abound, to be covered with, or to have an abundance of, something, especially something jutting out.

  3. 3

    To be on one's guard or raise one's defenses; to react with fear, suspicion, or distance.

    The employees bristled at the prospect of working through the holidays.

  4. 4

    archaicobsoleteTo make (something) rise or stand erect, like bristles.

  5. 5

    To cause (someone) to be on one's guard or raise one's defenses.

    Your blatant attitude always bristles me.

  6. 6

    rareTo fix a bristle or bristles to.

    to bristle a thread

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

Bristle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsoie (stiff or coarse hair), poil (hair or straw of a brush, broom etc), se hérisser (to rise or stand erect, like bristle)
GermanBorste (stiff or coarse hair), sträuben (to rise or stand erect, like bristle)
Portuguesecerda (stiff or coarse hair), eriçar (to rise or stand erect, like bristle)
Spanishcerda, ceda, seta, seda, crin, crines (stiff or coarse hair)

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 bristle come from?

From Middle English bristil, bristel, brustel, from Old English bristl, byrst, *brystl, *byrstel, from Proto-West Germanic *burstilu, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (compare Dutch borstel, German Borste (“boar's bristle”), Icelandic burst), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stís (compare Middle Irish brostaid (“to goad, spur”), Latin fastīgium (“top”), Polish barszcz (“hogweed”)).

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

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