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belfry

/ˈbɛlfɹi/noun

belfry is spelled B-E-L-F-R-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 49,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, belfry means “A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of belfry is belfries.

How many letters and syllables are in belfry?

Letters6: B-E-L-F-R-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 3 million words; the 49,368th 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 belfry?

Belfry appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 49,368th 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 belfry?

  • /ˈbɛlfɹi/

Belfry 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-belfry.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of belfry

  • belfries plural

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

What does belfry mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.

  2. 2

    A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.

  3. 3

    A shed.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA movable tower used in sieges.

  5. 5

    obsoleteAn alarm-tower; a watchtower possibly containing an alarm-bell.

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

Belfry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbeffroi (tower or steeple specifically for containing…), clocher (part of a large tower or steeple, specifically…)
GermanGlockenturm (tower or steeple specifically for containing…), Glockenstube (part of a large tower or steeple, specifically…), Belagerungsturm (moveable tower used in sieges), Bergfried (watchtower containing an alarm-bell)
Portuguesecampanário, torre sineira (tower or steeple specifically for containing…)
Spanishcampanil, campanario, clochel, espadaña (tower or steeple specifically for containing…)

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 belfry come from?

From Middle English belfry, bellfray, belfray, berfrey, barfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey, from Late Latin berfrēdus, from Frankish *bergafriþu, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz, equivalent to barrow + frith. English forms containing bel- as opposed to ber- were preferred due to false association with English bell. Cognate with Middle High German bërcvrit, bërvrit (“defensive tower”) (modern German Bergfried), Middle Dutch bergfrede, bergfert. Doublet of bergfried.

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

What to look up after belfry