being
/ˈbiː.ɪŋ/
"being" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“being” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #119 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #119
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of be
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | being |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈbiː.ɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #119 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “being” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for being is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbiː.ɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #119 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of be".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for being, with forms such as "bbeing", "beign", and "beingg". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "big", "ben", "bin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Originated 1250–1300 from Middle English being; see be + -ing. The correct English form is being, spelled B-E-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of be
Etymology
Originated 1250–1300 from Middle English being; see be + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbeing,beign,beingg,beinng,benig,bieng,ebing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of being - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “being”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbiː.ɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “big” - see the side-by-side comparison. being vs big
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.