Beat or beet?
beat is a noun meaning “A stroke; a blow”; beet is a noun meaning “Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar”. They sound the same (/biːt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) beat is about 91 times as common as beet.
What is the difference between beat and beet?
| beat | beet | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A stroke; a blow A pulsation or throb To hit; to strike | Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar CanadaUSA beetroot; a swollen root of such a plant used as a culinary vegetable |
| Example | a beat of the heart | The beet is a hardy species |
| Forms | beats | beets |
| Pronunciation | /biːt/ /bɛt/ | /biːt/ |
| In writing | 102 times per million words | 1.1 times per million words |
Sources: beat and beet in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of beat and beet
beat
- 1
A stroke; a blow
- 2
To hit; to strike
As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled
- 3
simple past tense of beat
- 4
USslangExhausted
After the long day, she was feeling completely beat
- 5
A beatnik
- 6
Relating to the Beat Generation
beat poetry
- 7
A pulsation or throb
a beat of the heart
- 8
To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm
He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque
beet
- 1
Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar
The beet is a hardy species
- 2
CanadaUSA beetroot; a swollen root of such a plant used as a culinary vegetable
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, beat or beet?
beat appears 102 times per million words; beet 1.1 times per million words.
beat 102 times per million wordsbeet 1.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search beat vs beet?
“beat vs beet” is searched about 720 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“beet vs beat”, “beat or beet”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.