begat
/biˈɡæt/
"begat" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“begat” is uncommon English (frequency #58,544 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,544
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - simple past of beget
Corpus desk
Index EN-begat · begat · English
begat · rank #58,544 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,544
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Bernabeu
Nearest frequency peer: Bernabeu (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “begat”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- bathers
bathers
41,461 corpus weight
- beek
beek
41,459 corpus weight
- begat
begat
41,457 corpus weight
- Bernabeu
Bernabeu
41,456 corpus weight
- Bernoulli
Bernoulli
41,455 corpus weight
- berserker
berserker
41,454 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “begat” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “begat” in English
Rare enough to double-check
begat is uncommon English at frequency #58,544 among 4,121 “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
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how begat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "begat", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).