belated
/bɪˈleɪtɪd/
"belated" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“belated” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,128 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #28,128
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past and past participle of belate
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 | belated |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈleɪtɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #28,128 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belated” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for belated is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈleɪtɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,128 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past and past participle of belate".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for belated, with forms such as "bbelated", "bealted", and "belaetd". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "blamed", "bolted", "blazed", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is belated, spelled B-E-L-A-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1simple past and past participle of belate
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbelated,bealted,belaetd,belatde,belatedd,belatted,bellated,beltaed,bleated,eblated
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of belated - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "belated"?
What does "belated" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "belated"?
How do you pronounce "belated"?
What language does "belated" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “belated”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-L-A-T-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈleɪtɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “blamed” - see the side-by-side comparison. belated vs blamed
- 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.