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PlainSpell

beet

/biːt/noun

beet is spelled B-E-E-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “beat vs beet” about 720 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, beet means “Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of beet is beets.

How many letters and syllables are in beet?

Letters4: B-E-E-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 27,150th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

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); 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).

How common is beet?

Beet appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th 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 beet?

  • /biːt/

Beet 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-beet.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with beet

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

beat vs beet720 G

Sounds like: beat (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of beet

  • beets plural
  • bete

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

What does beet mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar.

    The beet is a hardy species.

  2. 2

    CanadaUSA beetroot; a swollen root of such a plant used as a culinary vegetable.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo improve; to mend.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo kindle a fire.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo rouse.

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

Beet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbetterave, bette (Beta vulgaris – see also chard)
GermanBete, Rübe (Beta vulgaris – see also chard), Rote Bete (a root)
Portuguesebeterraba (Beta vulgaris – see also chard)
Spanishremolacha, betabel, betarraga, beterava, beterraga, betarrata (Beta vulgaris – see also chard)

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 beet come from?

From Middle English bete, from Old English bēte, from Latin bēta, possibly of Celtic origin.

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

What to look up after beet