# bulk

> English word · Noun · IPA /bʌlk/ · frequency rank #5,195

## Definitions
1. Size, specifically, volume.
2. Any huge body or structure.
3. The major part of something.
4. The major part of something.
5. The major part of something.
6. Dietary fibre.
7. Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore, or grain.
8. A cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo.
9. Excess body mass, especially muscle.
10. A period where one tries to gain muscle.
11. A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist.
12. The body.

## Etymology
From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”).
Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

## Easily confused with
- **but** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-but)
- **buy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-buy)
- **bus** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bus)
- **bum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bum)
- **bun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bun)
- **bur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bur)
- **busy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-busy)
- **burn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-burn)
- **bush** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bush)
- **bull** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bull)
- **butt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-butt)
- **buzz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-buzz)
- **bust** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bust)
- **bump** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bump)
- **buys** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-buys)
- **bury** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bury)
- **bunk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-bunk)
- **Burt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-burt)
- **buns** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-buns)
- **burr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bulk-vs-burr)

## Common misspellings (6)
`bbulk`, `bluk`, `bukl`, `bulkk`, `bullk`, `ublk`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/bulk