beast with two backs

noun

"beast-with-two-backs" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“beast with two backs” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
20
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.

Corpus desk

Index EN-beast-with-two-backs · beast with two backs · English

beast with two backs · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 20 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for beast with two backs
PropertyValue
Headwordbeast with two backs
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters20
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “beast with two backs” in English

beast with two backsranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

beast with two backs is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.".

No misspelling variants are generated for beast with two backs in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais. The correct English form is beast with two backs, spelled B-E-A-S-T- -W-I-T-H- -T-W-O- -B-A-C-K-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how beast with two backs appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I am one ſir, that come to tell you, your daughter, and the Moore, are now making the Beaſt with two backs.
  2. [H]e remained one of the few boys of his year with whom Adrian had never made the beast with two backs, or rather with whom he had never made the beast with one back and an interestingly shaped middle, […]

Etymology

First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais.

Synonyms

double-backed beasttwo-backed beast

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "beast with two backs"?
"beast with two backs" is spelled B-E-A-S-T- -W-I-T-H- -T-W-O- -B-A-C-K-S.
What does "beast with two backs" mean?
As a noun, "beast with two backs" means: Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.
What is the origin of the word "beast with two backs"?
First attested in English by William Shakespeare, see quotations. Supposedly a calque of French la beste à deux doz (in modern French, la bête à deux dos) from Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534, by François Rabelais. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list