begat
/biˈɡæt/
"begat" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“begat” is uncommon English (frequency #58,544 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,544
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past of beget
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | begat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /biˈɡæt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #58,544 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “begat” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
begat is uncommon English at frequency #58,544 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /biˈɡæt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "simple past of beget".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for begat, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is begat, spelled B-E-G-A-T.
Definition
- 1simple past of beget
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 “begat”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-G-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /biˈɡæt/ (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.