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bucket

buck·et/ˈbʌkɪt/noun, verb

bucket is spelled B-U-C-K-E-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables (buck·et). It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Bucket, the name). As a noun, bucket means “A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bucket is buckets.

How many letters and syllables are in bucket?

Letters6: B-U-C-K-E-T
Syllables2: buck·et
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is bucket?

Bucket appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Bucket, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bucket?

  • US /ˈbʌkɪt/
  • /ˈbʌk.ət/
  • /ˈbʊkɪt/

Bucket has 2 syllables, split buck·et in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-bucket.wav, En-us-bucket.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of bucket

  • buckets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bucketing participle, present
  • bucketed participle, past

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

What does bucket mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items.

    I need a bucket to carry the water from the well.

  2. 2

    The amount held in this container.

    The horse drank a whole bucket of water.

  3. 3

    informalA large amount of liquid.

    It rained buckets yesterday.

  4. 4

    informalA great deal of anything.

    My new suit cost me buckets.

  5. 5

    UKarchaicA unit of measure equal to four gallons.

  6. 6

    The part of a piece of machinery that resembles a bucket (container).

  7. 7

    derogatoryslangSomeone who habitually uses crack cocaine.

  8. 8

    slangAn old vehicle that is not in good working order.

verb

  1. 1

    To place inside a bucket.

  2. 2

    To draw or lift in, or as if in, buckets.

    to bucket water

  3. 3

    informalTo rain heavily.

    It’s really bucketing down out there.

  4. 4

    informalTo travel very quickly.

    The boat is bucketing along.

  5. 5

    To ride (a horse) hard or mercilessly.

  6. 6

    AustraliaslangTo criticize vehemently; to denigrate.

  7. 7

    To categorize (data) by splitting it into buckets, or groups of related items.

  8. 8

    USTo engage in an illegal practice where a broker confirms a client's trade order without actually executing it on the free market.

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

Bucket in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchseau, chaudière (container), godet (part of piece of machinery), tacot, bazou, minoune (old car)
GermanEimer, Kübel (container), Schaufel (part of piece of machinery), Karre (old car), ein Eimer voll, ein Kübel voll (amount held in this container)
Portuguesebalde (container)
Spanishbalde, cubeta, cubo, pozal, tobo (container), llover a cántaros (rain heavily)

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 bucket come from?

From Middle English buket, boket, partly from Old English bucc ("bucket, pitcher"; mod. dialectal buck), equivalent to bouk + -et; and partly from Anglo-Norman buket, buquet (“tub; pail”) (compare Norman boutchet, Norman bouquet), diminutive of Old French buc (“abdomen; object with a cavity”), from Vulgar Latin *būcus (compare Occitan and Catalan buc, Italian buco, buca (“hole, gap”)), from Frankish *būk (“belly, stomach”). Both the Old English and Frankish terms derive from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, stomach”). More at bouk.

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

What to look up after bucket