Word.ws English Dictionary

bight

/baɪt/

bight noun: a corner, bend, or angle; a hollow.

bight: a corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
Image: NormanEinstein, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bight (plural bights)

  1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
    • the bight of a horse's knee
    • the bight of an elbow
  2. An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf.
  3. A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
  4. A curve in a rope.
    • I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I

Verb

bight (third-person singular simple present bights, present participle bighting, simple past and past participle bighted)

  1. (transitive) To arrange or fasten (a rope) in bights.

bight meaning in Tamil and Bengali

bight in Tamil

கண்ணி, வடவளையம், பெருங்குடா

bight in Bengali

উপকূলের খাঁড়ি, বাঁকানো স্থান, দড়ির আলগা অংশ

Forms of bight

Noun
pluralbights
Verb
third-person singular presentbights
present participlebighting
past participlebighted
pastbighted

Plural of bight: bights

Origin of bight

From Middle English bight, biȝt, byȝt (also bought, bowght, bouȝt; see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Germanic *beuganą (“to bend, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewgʰ- (“to bend”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian boch, bocht, bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Saterland Frisian Bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), West Frisian bocht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Dutch bocht (“bay, bight”), German Bucht (“bay, bight, gulf”), Icelandic bót (“bight, cove, small bay”); also Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”), Ukrainian бга́ти (bháty, “to crumple, twist”), Sanskrit भुज् (bhuj, “to bend, curve; to sweep”).

Words formed from bight

Phrases with bight

Words that rhyme with bight

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bight

What does bight mean?
Bight means a corner, bend, or angle; a hollow.
What is bight in Tamil?
Bight in Tamil is கண்ணி, வடவளையம், பெருங்குடா. See Bight meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bight?
Bight can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bight?
Bight is pronounced /baɪt/.
What is the plural of bight?
The plural of bight is bights.

Words near bight in the dictionary

  1. Bighorn Mountains
  2. bighorn sheep
  3. bighorns
  4. bighouse
  5. bighouses
  6. bight
  7. Bight of Benin
  8. Bight of Biafra
  9. bighted
  10. bighting
  11. bights

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bight (page history and authors); bight (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bight (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bight.wav.

Cite this entry: “bight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.