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PlainSpell

behemoth

/bəˈhi(ː).məθ/noun

behemoth is spelled B-E-H-E-M-O-T-H: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,017th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, behemoth means “A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of behemoth is behemoths.

How many letters and syllables are in behemoth?

Letters8: B-E-H-E-M-O-T-H
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 30,017th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 behemoth?

Behemoth appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,017th 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 behemoth?

  • /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/
  • /ˈbiː.əˌməθ/

Behemoth has 3 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-behemoth.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of behemoth

  • behemoths plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does behemoth mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.

  2. 2

    Any great and mighty monster.

  3. 3

    Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Behemoth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
FrenchBéhémoth (mighty beast in the Book of Job), béhémoth, béhémot (mighty monster)
GermanBehemoth, Moloch (mighty beast in the Book of Job), Riesentier (mighty monster), Gigant, Koloss (something of great size and power)
PortugueseBeemôt (mighty beast in the Book of Job), mastodonte (something of great size and power)
Spanishbehemot (mighty beast in the Book of Job), socotroco, zocotroco (something of great size and power)

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 behemoth come from?

From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). Most likely, the Hebrew word is an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b h m)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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