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PlainSpell

baa

[bæ]noun, interjection, verb

baa is spelled B-A-A: 3 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, baa means “The characteristic cry or bleating of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of baa is baas.

How many letters and syllables are in baa?

Letters3: B-A-A
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 31,974th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is baa?

Baa appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce baa?

  • UK [bɑː]
  • US [bæ]
  • US [bɑ]

As a noun (“The letter ب in the Arabic script”): /bɑː/.

Baa has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-baa.ogg, En-us-baa.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with baa

Sounds like: bar (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: bah.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with baa?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as baa.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: aba.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of baa

  • baas plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • baaing participle, present
  • baaed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does baa mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The characteristic cry or bleating of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

    Near-synonyms: bleat, bleating

  2. 2

    The letter ب in the Arabic script.

interjection

  1. 1

    The characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

verb

  1. 1

    To make the characteristic cry of a sheep or (broader) a sheep or goat.

    Near-synonyms: blat, bleat (broad enough to include calves too)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Baa in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbêlement (bleating of sheep), bè, bê (cry of sheep), bêler (to make the cry of sheep)
GermanBlöken (bleating of sheep), bäh, mäh (cry of sheep), blöken, bähen, mähen (to make the cry of sheep)
Portuguesebalido (bleating of sheep), bé (cry of sheep), balir, balar (to make the cry of sheep)
Spanishbalido, be (bleating of sheep), balar (to make the cry of sheep)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does baa come from?

Compare German bäh, mäh; an imitative word. Notes on phonological development The pronunciation /bɑː/ is perhaps a development from earlier /bæː/ reflecting the shift of /æː/ to /ɑː/ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Compare Early Modern English bae, bea, both "to baa", respectively displaying the then current pronunciation of Middle English /aː/ as /æː/ and the failure of Middle English /ɛː/ to raise, and the replacement of mew with meow for another instance where recent sound change has made onomatopoeia opaque.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after baa