babe
/beɪb/noun
babe is spelled B-A-B-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Babe, the name). As a noun, babe means “A baby or infant; a very young human or animal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of babe is babes.
How many letters and syllables are in babe?
| Letters | 4: B-A-B-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,957th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is babe?
Babe appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Babe, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce babe?
- /beɪb/
Babe has one syllable (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-us-babe.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with babe
Also written: babes.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of babe
- babes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does babe mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A baby or infant; a very young human or animal.
These events came to pass when he was but a babe.
- 2
slangAn attractive person, especially a young woman.
She's a real babe!
- 3
A darling (a term of endearment).
Hey, babe, how's about you and me getting together?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Babe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense attractive person:
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 babe come from?
From Middle English babe, a variant of earlier baban, perhaps from Old English *baba (“boy, child”), from Proto-West Germanic *babō, from Proto-Germanic *babô, reduplicated variant of *ba-, *bō- (“father, brother, close male relation”). cognates and related terms Related to Old Frisian bobba (“child”) (whence North Frisian babbe, babb, babe (“child”)), Old High German Babo (a male forename), see boy. Otherwise, origin obscure.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).