beacon
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "beacon", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "beacon" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "beacon" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
beacon is aEnglishnoun. It means: A signal fire to notify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning. Pronounced /ˈbiːkən/. Often confused with bean and beaten.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | beacon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbiːkən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #10,497 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for beacon is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbiːkən/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,497 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for beacon, with forms such as "baecon", "bbeacon", and "beaccon". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "bean", "beaten", "Benson", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English beken, from Old English bēacn (“sign, signal”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂u-, *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of buoy. Compare West Frisian beaken (“buoy”), Dutch baken (“b… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is beacon, spelled B-E-A-C-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A signal fire to notify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning.
- 2A signal, buoy, post, or other conspicuous mark erected on an eminence near the shore, or moored in shoal water, as a guide to mariners, particularly to warn vessels of danger.
- 3A high hill or other easily distinguishable object near the shore which can serve as guidance for seafarers.
- 4That which gives notice of danger, hope, etc., or keeps people on the correct path; a source of inspiration.
- 5An electronic device that broadcasts a signal to nearby portable devices, enabling smartphones etc. to perform actions when in physical proximity to the beacon.
- 6Ellipsis of web beacon.
Etymology
From Middle English beken, from Old English bēacn (“sign, signal”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂u-, *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of buoy. Compare West Frisian beaken (“buoy”), Dutch baken (“beacon”), Middle Low German bāke (“beacon, sign”), German Bake (“traffic sign”), Middle High German bouchen (“sign”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: baecon,bbeacon,beaccon,beacno,beaconn,beaocn,becaon,ebacon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for beacon
Misspelling Variants of "beacon"
Frequency rank: #10,497 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: