behindvsbeyondWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: behind is a adverb, beyond is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“behind” is an adverb and “beyond” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,635
“behind” frequency rank
#21,195
“beyond” frequency rank
45830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature behind beyond
Definition hinten über … hinaus, jenseits/jenseitig (von) etwas

Letter map: behind vs beyond

Shared letters muted; letters that set behind and beyond apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
behind
6 ch
beyond

Grammar separator: behind vs beyond

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: behind is anadverb and beyondapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

behind is recorded at frequency rank #24,635, classified as anadv, pronounced [bɪˈhaɪnd]. beyond is at rank #21,195, tagged as aprep, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 45830, this pair ranks #1,339,809 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of behind vs beyond

Shared letters: bden. Private to "behind": hi. Private to "beyond": oy.

"behind" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "beyond" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • behindbbehind · behhind · behidn · behindd · behinnd · behnid · beihnd · bheind
  • beyondbbeyond · beoynd · beynod · beyodn · beyondd · beyonnd · beyyond · byeond

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "behind" for "beyond" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "behind" is an adverb and "beyond" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "behind" or "beyond"?
"beyond" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,195 in our German list, against #24,635 for "behind". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "behind" and "beyond". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "behind" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "beyond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,339,809 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "behind" and "beyond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beyond vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,339,809 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list