became
/bɪˈkeɪm/
"became" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“became” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #728 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #728
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past of become
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 | became |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈkeɪm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #728 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “became” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for became is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈkeɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #728 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 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 became, with forms such as "bbecame", "bceame", and "beacme". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "blame", "become", "behave", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is became, spelled B-E-C-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1simple past of become
- 2past participle of become
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbecame,bceame,beacme,becaem,becamme,beccame,becmae,ebcame
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of became - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “became”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-C-A-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈkeɪm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “blame” - see the side-by-side comparison. became vs blame
- 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.