bis

prep

The verdict

“bis” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #14,300 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a preposition.

#14,300
frequency rank, Portuguese
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - até

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

bis vs by
33% similar
bis vs BR
0% similar
bis vs bo
33% similar

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

Key facts for bis
PropertyValue
Headwordbis
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechPreposition
Letters3
Frequency rank#14,300
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “bis” sits in Portuguese frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). bis lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Portuguese entry for bis is 3 letters long, classified as a preposition. Corpus data places it at rank #14,300 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "até".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for bis, a sign its spelling follows regular Portuguese conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BR", "bo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Portuguese form is bis, spelled B-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    até

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 Portuguese 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.
What does "bis" mean?
As a preposition, "bis" means: até
What words are commonly confused with "bis"?
"bis" is commonly confused with "by", "BR", "bo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "bis" come from?
"bis" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “bis”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct Portuguese spelling is B-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. bis vs by
  • Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list