beforehand
/bɪˈfɔːhænd/
"beforehand" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“beforehand” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,549 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #12,549
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - At an earlier or preceding time.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | beforehand |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /bɪˈfɔːhænd/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #12,549 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “beforehand” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for beforehand is 10 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈfɔːhænd/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,549 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "At an earlier or preceding time.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for beforehand, with forms such as "bbeforehand", "befforehand", and "befoerhand". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English biforhand, biforhond, beforehonde, bifornhand, equivalent to before + hand. [13th century. After Old French avant main]. The correct English form is beforehand, spelled B-E-F-O-R-E-H-A-N-D.
Definition
- 1At an earlier or preceding time.
Etymology
From Middle English biforhand, biforhond, beforehonde, bifornhand, equivalent to before + hand. [13th century. After Old French avant main].
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbeforehand,befforehand,befoerhand,beforeahnd,beforehadn,beforehandd,beforehannd,beforehhand,beforehnad,beforheand,beforrehand,befroehand,beofrehand,bfeorehand,ebforehand
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of beforehand - 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
How do you spell "beforehand"?
What does "beforehand" mean?
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Using “beforehand”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-F-O-R-E-H-A-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈfɔːhænd/ (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
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.