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PlainSpell

beaver

/ˈbivɚ/noun, verb

beaver is spelled B-E-A-V-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, beaver means “A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of beaver is beavers.

How many letters and syllables are in beaver?

Letters6: B-E-A-V-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is beaver?

Beaver appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th 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 beaver?

  • UK /ˈbiːvə/
  • US /ˈbivɚ/

Beaver has 2 syllables (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-beaver.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with beaver

Sounds like: Belvoir, bever, bevor (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with beaver?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as beaver from its last stressed vowel (/ivəɹ/):

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 beaver

  • beavers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • beavering participle, present
  • beavered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does beaver mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.

  2. 2

    The fur of the beaver.

  3. 3

    A hat, of various shapes, made from a felted beaver fur (or later of silk), fashionable in Europe between 1550 and 1850.

  4. 4

    CanadaUSBeaver pelts as an article of exchange or as a standard of value.

  5. 5

    Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woollen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.

  6. 6

    A brown colour, like that of a beaver.

  7. 7

    A move in response to being doubled, in which one immediately doubles the stakes again, keeping the doubling cube on one’s own side of the board.

  8. 8

    Alternative letter-case form of Beaver (“member of the youngest wing of the Scout movement”).

  9. 9

    Butter.

  10. 10

    Alternative spelling of bevor (“part of a helmet”).

    With trembling hands her beaver he untied, / Which done, he saw, and seeing knew her face.

verb

  1. 1

    To form a felt-like texture, similar to the way beaver fur is used for felt-making.

  2. 2

    To work hard.

  3. 3

    slangTo cut a continuous ring around a tree that one is felling.

  4. 4

    After being doubled, to immediately double the stakes again, a move that keeps the doubling cube on one’s own side of the board.

  5. 5

    slangTo spot a beard in a game of beaver.

noun

as Beaver
  1. 1

    A native or resident of the American state of Oregon.

  2. 2

    A member of the youngest wing of the Scout movement, composed of groups for children, traditionally boys, of approximately five to seven years of age.

  3. 3

    Alternative letter-case form of beaver (“beard-spotting game”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Beaver in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcastor, bièvre (semiaquatic rodent), chatte, (fou)foune, minou (vulva or pubic hair near a vulva)
GermanBiber (semiaquatic rodent), Bär (vulva or pubic hair near a vulva), Biberfell (fur)
Portuguesecastor (semiaquatic rodent)
Spanishcastor (semiaquatic rodent), chocho (vulva or pubic hair near a vulva)

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 beaver come from?

From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after beaver