A sort of knot. And a knot is a sort of hitch. You can argue as long as you like (and some people do, believe me) but I don’t believe there is any way of decid¬ing for certain which knots are hitches and which hitches are knots. In any case they are all bends. Nevertheless, when used as a verb, to Hitch means to make fast a rope to a ring or a spar, whereas you Bend one rope to another. You can use a reef knot to bend to ropes together, a topsail sheet bend to hitch a rope firmly to the eye in the clew of a sail, or a rolling hitch to bend one rope to another rope or to a spar. (Now you’re as confused as I am)