bean
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bean", 4-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 "bean" 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 "bean" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bean is aEnglishnoun. It means: Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seedpods. Pronounced /ˈbi(ː)n/. It ranks #7,313 in English word frequency. Often confused with bn and bed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bean |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbi(ː)n/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,313 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bean is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbi(ː)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,313 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for bean, with forms such as "baen", "bbean", and "beann". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bn", "bed", "bet", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bene, from Old English bēan, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu, from Proto-Germanic *baunō (“bean”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- (“bean”). Cognate with Scots bene, bein (“bean”), North Frisian buan (“bean”), Saterland Frisian Boone (“… 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 bean, spelled B-E-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seedpods.
- 2The large edible seed of such a plant (for example, a broad bean, navy bean, or garbanzo bean).
- 3The edible seedpod of such a plant.
- 4The bean-like seed of certain other plants, such as a vanilla bean or (especially) a coffee bean.
- 5An object resembling a pea or bean in shape, often made from plastic or styrofoam and used in large numbers as packing material or as stuffing for beanbags and similar items.
- 6The head or brain.
- 7The human clitoris.
- 8A person; especially, a baby.
- 9A guinea coin or sovereign.
- 10Money.
- 11Clipping of JavaBean.
- 12Any form of tablet, especially benzedrine (benny).
- 13A toe bean.
Etymology
From Middle English bene, from Old English bēan, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu, from Proto-Germanic *baunō (“bean”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- (“bean”). Cognate with Scots bene, bein (“bean”), North Frisian buan (“bean”), Saterland Frisian Boone (“bean”), West Frisian bean, beanne (“bean”), Dutch boon (“bean”), German Bohne (“bean”), Luxembourgish Boun (“bean”), Danish bønne (“bean”), Faroese bøn, bøna (“bean”), Icelandic baun (“bean”), Norwegian Bokmål bønne (“bean”), Norwegian Nynorsk bauna, baune, bogna, bønne, Swedish böna (“bean”), Irish pónaire (“bean”), Manx poanrey (“bean”), Scottish Gaelic pònair (“bean”), Latin faba (“bean”), Russian боб (bob, “bean”), Serbo-Croatian бо̏б/bȍb. Doublet of fava.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: baen,bbean,beann,bena,eban
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bean
Misspelling Variants of "bean"
Frequency rank: #7,313 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: