begin
/bɪˈɡɪn/verb, noun
begin is spelled B-E-G-I-N. The wrong spelling people search most is beggin: about 350 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Begin is a verb meaning “To start, to initiate or take the first step into something”.
How many letters and syllables are in begin?
| Letters | 5: B-E-G-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 69 times per million words; the 1,528th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, beggin, about 350 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell begin?
Begin is spelled B-E-G-I-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for begin in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is begin?
Begin appears 69 times per million words in written English, the 1,528th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce begin?
- /bɪˈɡɪn/
- /bəˈɡɪn/
- /biˈɡɪn/
Begin has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_begin.ogg, En-us-begin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with begin?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as begin.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: being, binge.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of begin
- begins present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- beginning participle, present
- began past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- begun participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does begin mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.
I began playing the piano at the age of five.
- 2
To come into existence.
noun
- 1
nonstandardBeginning; start.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Begin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to start, to initiate (transitive):
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | commencer, démarrer, se mettre |
| German | anfangen, beginnen, starten, anheben |
| Portuguese | começar, iniciar |
| Spanish | comenzar, empezar, principiar, ecentar, encentar, decentar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does begin come from?
From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan, from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).