begging the question
/ˈbɛɡɪŋ ðə ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/
"begging-the-question" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“begging the question” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A logical fallacy in which a premise of an argument contains a direct or indirect assumption that the conclusion is true; offering a circular argument; circular reasoning.
Corpus desk
Index EN-begging-the-question · begging the question · English
begging the question · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | begging the question |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɛɡɪŋ ðə ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/ |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “begging the question” in English
Rare enough to double-check
begging the question is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɛɡɪŋ ðə ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A logical fallacy in which a premise of an argument contains a direct or indirect assumption that the conclusion is true; offering a circular argument; circular reasoning.".
begging the question has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is begging the question, spelled B-E-G-G-I-N-G- -T-H-E- -Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A logical fallacy in which a premise of an argument contains a direct or indirect assumption that the conclusion is true; offering a circular argument; circular reasoning.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how begging the question appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is an instance of begging the question to argue that God can only do good deeds because God is good.
But the thing which is called begging the question, is the making use of the very point, that is the thing in debate, or the thing to be proved, as an argument to prove itself. […] It is called begging the question, because it is a depending as it were on the courtesy of the other side, to grant me the point in question, without offering any argument as t…
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.