been
/bɪn/
"been" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“been” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #62 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #62
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 2
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - past participle of be.
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 | been |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #62 |
| Misspellings tracked | 2 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “been” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for been is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #62 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 2 likely wrong-spelling variants for been, including "bbeen" and "beenn". 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, "bn", "bet", "ben", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-West Germanic *ga- Old English ġe- Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰuHyétider.? Proto-Germanic *beuną Proto-West Germanic *… The correct English form is been, spelled B-E-E-N.
Definition
- 1past participle of be.
- 2remote past form of be.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-West Germanic *ga- Old English ġe- Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰuHyétider.? Proto-Germanic *beuną Proto-West Germanic *beun Old English bēon Old English ġebēon Middle English been English been From Middle English been (past participle), from Old English (ġe)bēon. By surface analysis, be + -en.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbeen,beenn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of been - 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 “been”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bn” - see the side-by-side comparison. been vs bn
- 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.