begun
/bɪˈɡʌn/adjective, verb
begun is spelled B-E-G-U-N: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,875th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, begun means “Having begun” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in begun?
| Letters | 5: B-E-G-U-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,875th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is begun?
Begun appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,875th 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 begun?
- /bɪˈɡʌn/
- /bɪˈɡʊn/
Begun 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-us-begun.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does begun mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having begun.
verb
- 1
past participle of begin
... when he should take the sield, that city was persuaded to complete the regiment they had begun to form, under the command of a Colonel whom the King had recommended to them ; which they did raise to the number of a thousand men.
- 2
nonstandardobsoletesimple past of begin
When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise, Than when we first begun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).