been
/ˈbɪn/verb, noun
been is spelled B-E-E-N. The wrong spelling people search most is beeen: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 145 of all searches for the word. Been is a verb meaning “remote past form of be”.
How many letters and syllables are in been?
| Letters | 4: B-E-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 1,862 times per million words; the 64th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, beeen, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell been?
Been is spelled B-E-E-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 144 of the searches for been in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is been?
Been appears 1,862 times per million words in written English, the 64th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce been?
- /ˈbɪn/
- [ˈbɪn]
- /ˈbiːn/
As a noun: /biːn/.
Been has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-been.ogg, En-uk-been.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with been
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bin (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: bin.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with been?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as been.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: bene.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does been mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
past participle of be.
All the fries have been eaten.
- 2
remote past form of be.
He been had that job.
- 3
rareSynonym of be (infinitival sense).
It useta been five foot long.
noun
- 1
UKplural of bee
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does been come from?
From Middle English been (past participle), from Old English (ġe)bēon. By surface analysis, be + -en.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).