bully
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bully", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bully" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bully" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bully is aEnglishnoun. It means: A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege. Pronounced /ˈbʊli/. It ranks #8,644 in English word frequency. Often confused with buy and busy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʊli/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #8,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bully is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbʊli/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,644 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for bully, with forms such as "bbully", "bluly", and "bullyy". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "buy", "busy", "bury", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High G… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bully, spelled B-U-L-L-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
- 2A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
- 3A hired thug.
- 4A sex worker's minder.
- 5Bully beef.
- 6A brisk, dashing fellow.
- 7The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
- 8Any of various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper gobies.
- 9An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
- 10A companion; mate (male or female).
- 11A darling, sweetheart (male or female).
- 12A standoff between two players from the opposing teams, who repeatedly hit each other's hockey sticks and then attempt to acquire the ball, as a method of resuming the game in certain circumstances.
- 13A miner's hammer.
Etymology
From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy. The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbully,bluly,bullyy,buly,bulyl,ublly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bully
Misspelling Variants of "bully"
Frequency rank: #8,644 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: