bis

\bi\

/\bi\/ adj

The verdict

“bis” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,530) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#7,530
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est d’un gris beige foncé #766F64 ou clair #F1E2BE.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bis · bis · French

bis · rank #7,530 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,530
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH BBC

Nearest frequency peer: BBC (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bis »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bis » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

bis vs by
33% similar
bis vs bu
33% similar
bis vs Br
0% similar

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

Key facts for bis
PropertyValue
Headwordbis
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\bi\
Letters3
Frequency rank#7,530
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bis »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « BBC » (#7,529), « bloque » (#7,531), « audition » (#7,528). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bis » est au #7,530. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bis is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "bu", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \bi\. Frequency #7,530 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

bis doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "bu", "Br", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is bis, spelled B-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est d’un gris beige foncé #766F64 ou clair #F1E2BE.
  2. 2
    Qui contient un peu de son, en parlant d’un pain ; semi-complet.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Des pelotons de fil bis dormaient au fond d’un dévidoir invalide.
  2. Sous les pommiers, des femmes courbées ramassent les pommes et remplissent les paniers d’osier et les sacs de toile bise.

This word in other languages

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 "bis"?
"bis" is spelled B-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \bi\.
What does "bis" mean?
As an adjective, "bis" means: Qui est d’un gris beige foncé #766F64 ou clair #F1E2BE.
What words are commonly confused with "bis"?
"bis" is commonly confused with "by", "bu", "Br". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bis"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bis" is \bi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bis" come from?
"bis" 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 "bis", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list