bah

\baː\

/\baː\/ intj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bah” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,107) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,107
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Interjection dénotant le doute ou la négation.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bah · bah · French

bah · rank #1,107 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,107
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH attend

Nearest frequency peer: attend (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “bah”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “bah” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bah vs by
33% similar
bah vs be
33% similar
bah vs BD
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bah
PropertyValue
Headwordbah
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\baː\
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,107
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “bah” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).bahse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « attend » (#1,106), « cinéma » (#1,108), « anti » (#1,105). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bah is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "be", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced \baː\. Frequency #1,107 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

bah has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "be", "BD", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is bah, spelled B-A-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Interjection dénotant le doute ou la négation.
  2. 2
    Interjection marquant la renonciation ou le rejet d'une idée par insouciance ou lâcher-prise.
  3. 3
    Mot permettant au locuteur d’avoir le temps de réfléchir, de se décider.
  4. 4
    Évidemment, bien sûr (que).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bah appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. — Lui ! célèbre ? — Mais on ne parle que de lui !… — Ah ! bah ! s’écria Lisbeth.
  2. Bah ! vous croyez, Madame, dit le roi d’un air qui indiquait qu’il n’ajoutait pas grande foi aux prédictions de sa mère.

Synonyms

bastben

This word in other languages

bah(English)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bah"?
"bah" is spelled B-A-H. The IPA pronunciation is \baː\.
What does "bah" mean?
As an interjection, "bah" means: Interjection dénotant le doute ou la négation.
What words are commonly confused with "bah"?
"bah" is commonly confused with "by", "be", "BD". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bah"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bah" is \baː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bah" come from?
"bah" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bah", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Mme#1,067fou#1,063con#1,056pro#1,039

What to do next

You've looked up "bah". Here's where to go from here.

  • "bah" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "by". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #1,107 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list