befell
/bɪˈfɛl/
"befell" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“befell” is uncommon English (frequency #50,381 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,381
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past of befall
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | befell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈfɛl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #50,381 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “befell” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
befell is uncommon English at frequency #50,381 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /bɪˈfɛl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "simple past of befall".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for befell, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is befell, spelled B-E-F-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1simple past of befall
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 “befell”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-F-E-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈfɛl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.