Soya bean or soybean?
soya bean is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of soybean”; soybean is a noun meaning “A legume plant (Glycine max), commonly cultivated for human and animal…”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word.
What is the difference between soya bean and soybean?
| soya bean | soybean | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of soybean | A legume plant (Glycine max), commonly cultivated for human and animal consumption and as a nitrogen-fixing ground cover The edible seed of this plant |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | none | soybeans |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈsɔɪˌbin/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.2 times per million words |
Sources: soya bean and soybean 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 soya bean and soybean
soya bean
- 1
Alternative spelling of soybean
soybean
- 1
A legume plant (Glycine max), commonly cultivated for human and animal consumption and as a nitrogen-fixing ground cover
- 2
The edible seed of this plant
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, soya bean or soybean?
soya bean is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; soybean 1.2 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 soya bean vs soybean?
“soya bean vs soybean” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“soybean vs soya bean”, “soya bean or soybean”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.