bae
/beɪ/noun, verb
bae is spelled B-A-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bae means “Darling (term of endearment)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bae is baes.
How many letters and syllables are in bae?
| Letters | 3: B-A-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.8 times per million words; the 13,321st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is bae?
Bae appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st 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 bae?
- /beɪ/
Bae 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-ca-bae.opus, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bae
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bey (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with bae?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bae.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: abe.
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 bae
- baes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- baeing participle, present
- baed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bae mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
slangDarling (term of endearment).
And if you actually want to see your bae – you know, like in person – You better set aside some of your refund check to pay for the $26 train ticket to a school that lingers outside of the tri-state area.
- 2
Asian pear.
verb
- 1
To make the sound of a wild animal, to bay.
noun
- 1
The ship prefix for ships of the navy of Ecuador.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bae in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ship of Ecuador:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | BAE |
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 bae come from?
Syncopic form of babe or baby. Notably, it is sometimes incorrectly linked to the unrelated Danish word bæ (“poop”). Sometimes claimed to derive from "before anyone else", a possible backronym.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).