become
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "become", 6-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 "become" 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 "become" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
become is aEnglishverb. It means: begin to be; turn into (often with permanent states). Pronounced /bɪˈkʌm/. It ranks #381 in English word frequency. Often confused with biome and before.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | become |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈkʌm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #381 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for become is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈkʌm/. Corpus data places it at rank #381 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for become, with forms such as "bbecome", "bceome", and "beccome". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "biome", "before", "becomes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: A compound of the sources of be- + come. From Middle English becomen, bicumen, from Old English becuman (“to come (to), approach, arrive, enter, meet with, fall in with; happen, befall; befit”), from Proto-Germanic *bikwemaną (“to come around, come about, c… 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 become, spelled B-E-C-O-M-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1begin to be; turn into (often with permanent states).
- 2To come about; happen; come into being; arise.
- 3To be appropriate for.
- 4Of an adornment, piece of clothing etc.: to look attractive on (someone).
- 5To arrive, come (to a place).
Etymology
A compound of the sources of be- + come. From Middle English becomen, bicumen, from Old English becuman (“to come (to), approach, arrive, enter, meet with, fall in with; happen, befall; befit”), from Proto-Germanic *bikwemaną (“to come around, come about, come across, come by”), equivalent to be- (“about, around”) + come. Cognate with Scots becum (“to come, arrive, reach a destination”), North Frisian bekommen, bykommen (“to come by, obtain, receive”), West Frisian bikomme (“to come by, obtain, receive”), Dutch bekomen (“to come by, obtain, receive”), German bekommen (“to get, receive, obtain”), Swedish bekomma (“to receive, concern”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (biqiman, “to come upon one, befall”). Sense of "befit, suit" due to influence from Middle English cweme, icweme, see queem. Displaced Old English weorþan.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbecome,bceome,beccome,becmoe,becoem,becomme,beocme,ebcome
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for become
Misspelling Variants of "become"
Frequency rank: #381 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: