Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell bought

What it means: To have purchased something.

In a sentence: She bought a shiny red balloon at the fair. ▶

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as boght or baught.

Same family: buy, buying, buyer, boughten, purchase. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Bought” is the irregular past tense of “buy” and comes from Old English “bohte,” the past form of “bycgan.” Over time, the spelling changed, but the unusual pronunciation stayed, which is why it doesn’t sound the way it looks.

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

account · you'll · bough · fought · doubt · you'd · you've · dough

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.