beaver
/ˈbiːvə/
"beaver" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“beaver” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,733 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,733
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | beaver |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbiːvə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,733 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “beaver” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for beaver is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbiːvə/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,733 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for beaver, with forms such as "baever", "bbeaver", and "beaevr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "beer", "brave", "bevel", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”). Cognate with West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur… The correct English form is beaver, spelled B-E-A-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.
- 2The fur of the beaver.
- 3A hat, of various shapes, made from a felted beaver fur (or later of silk), fashionable in Europe between 1550 and 1850.
- 4Beaver pelts as an article of exchange or as a standard of value.
- 5Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woollen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.
- 6A brown colour, like that of a beaver.
- 7A 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.
- 8Alternative letter-case form of Beaver (“member of the youngest wing of the Scout movement”).
- 9A beard or a bearded person.
- 10A game, in which points are scored by spotting beards.
- 11The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself; (attributively) denoting films or literature featuring nude women.
- 12A woman, especially one who is sexually attractive.
Etymology
From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”). Cognate with West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur. Non-Germanic cognates include Welsh befer, Latin fiber, Lithuanian bẽbras, Russian бобр (bobr), Avestan 𐬠𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬭𐬀 (bauura), and Sanskrit बभ्रु (bábhru, “mongoose; ichneumon”). Slang use to refer to a woman evolved from use to refer to pubic hair, which evolved from use to refer to beards, which evolved from use to refer to the furry animal or its fur.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: baever,bbeaver,beaevr,beaverr,beavre,beavver,bevaer,ebaver
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of beaver - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “beaver”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-A-V-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbiːvə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “beer” - see the side-by-side comparison. beaver vs beer
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.