bee
/ˈbiː/
"bee" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bee” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,114) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #6,114
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for collecting pollen and (in some specie...
Corpus desk
Index EN-bee · bee · English
bee · rank #6,114 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,114
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bombing
Nearest frequency peer: bombing (+1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “bee”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- watches
watches
93,891 corpus weight
- advise
advise
93,890 corpus weight
- anxious
anxious
93,889 corpus weight
- bee
bee
93,887 corpus weight
- bombing
bombing
93,886 corpus weight
- Carlos
Carlos
93,884 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “bee” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | bee |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbiː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,114 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bee” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for bee is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "bi", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈbiː/. Frequency #6,114 among 4,121 “B” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for bee, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "bi", "BS", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-der. Proto-Germanic *bijǭ Proto-West Germanic *bijā Old English bēo Middle English bee English bee From Middle English bee, from Old English bēo (“bee”), from Proto-West Germanic *bijā, from Proto-Germanic *bijǭ (“be… The correct English form is bee, spelled B-E-E.
Definition
- 1A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for collecting pollen and (in some species) producing wax and honey.
- 2Any stinging flying insect, especially a wasp.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bee appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge[…].
An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-der. Proto-Germanic *bijǭ Proto-West Germanic *bijā Old English bēo Middle English bee English bee From Middle English bee, from Old English bēo (“bee”), from Proto-West Germanic *bijā, from Proto-Germanic *bijǭ (“bee”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey- (“bee”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian bij (“bee”), Dutch bij, by (“bee”), German Biene (“bee”), Limburgish Bé, bie (“bee”), Luxembourgish Bei (“bee”), Vilamovian byn (“bee”), West Flemish bieë (“bee”), Yiddish בין (bin, “bee”), Danish, Swedish bi (“bee”), Faroese býfluga (“bee”), Icelandic bý, býfluga (“bee”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk bie (“bee”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bee", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "bee". Here's where to go from here.
- "bee" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "by". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #6,114 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.