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PlainSpell

beep

/biːp/noun, verb

beep is spelled B-E-E-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, beep means “The sound produced by the horn of a car, or any similar sound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of beep is beeps.

How many letters and syllables are in beep?

Letters4: B-E-E-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.8 times per million words; the 16,005th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is beep?

Beep appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th 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 beep?

  • /biːp/

Beep has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-beep.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of beep

  • beeps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • beeping participle, present
  • beeped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does beep mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The sound produced by the horn of a car, or any similar sound.

  2. 2

    A short, electronically produced tone.

  3. 3

    A message sent to a pager device.

  4. 4

    Synonym of bell (“bell character”).

  5. 5

    USdatedslangA 1/2-ton general purpose military light truck

  6. 6

    USdatedslangA 3/4-ton general purpose military medium truck

  7. 7

    USdatedslangEspecially, the Dodge WC series U.S. Army WWII military trucks, in 1/2-ton 3/4-ton 1-ton variants

verb

  1. 1

    To produce a beep sound.

    The motorists in the traffic jam were getting more and more frustrated and started beeping their horns.

  2. 2

    informalTo have sexual intercourse with (someone), referring to the bleep tone used to censor obscene words in broadcasts.

    Jason beeped Sharlene after they had drunk a few beers.

  3. 3

    To contact (someone) via a pager device.

  4. 4

    To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.

    Susan beeped Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Beep in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpouet (the sound of the horn of a car), bip (electronically produced tone), biper (to produce a beep sound)
GermanHupen, Tuten (the sound of the horn of a car), Piepen (electronically produced tone), piepen, hupen, tuten (to produce a beep sound)
Spanishpitido (electronically produced tone), pitar, hacer bip (to produce a beep sound)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does beep come from?

Onomatopoeic.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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