belief

/bɪˈliːf/

//bɪˈliːf// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"belief" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“belief” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #3,211. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#3,211
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mental acceptance of a claim as true.

Corpus desk

Index EN-belief · belief · English

belief · rank #3,211 · 8 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,211
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bedroom

Nearest frequency peer: bedroom (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “belief”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “belief” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

belief vs brief
67% similar
belief vs belle
67% similar
belief vs Belize
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for belief
PropertyValue
Headwordbelief
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/bɪˈliːf/
Letters6
Frequency rank#3,211
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “belief”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).belieflands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “bedroom” (#3,210), “bound” (#3,212), “awful” (#3,209). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “belief” is #3,211. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around belief (IPA /bɪˈliːf/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #3,211 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for belief, with forms such as "bbelief", "beilef", and "beleif". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "brief", "belle", "Belize", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-West Germanic *laubu Old English lēafa Middle English bileve English belief From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu from Proto-Germanic *l… The correct English form is belief, spelled B-E-L-I-E-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
  2. 2
    Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.
  3. 3
    Something believed.
  4. 4
    The quality or state of believing.
  5. 5
    Religious faith.
  6. 6
    One's religious or moral convictions.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how belief appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. It's my belief that the thief is somebody known to us.
  2. The belief that there is no conflict between [livestock] farming and arable production also seems to be unfounded: by preventing the growth of trees and other deep vegetation in the hills and by compacting the soil, grazing animals cause a cycle of flash floods and drought, sporadically drowning good land downstream and reducing the supply of irrigation w…

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-West Germanic *laubu Old English lēafa Middle English bileve English belief From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu from Proto-Germanic *laubō. Compare German Glaube (“faith, belief”). The replacement of final /v/ with /f/ is due to the analogy of noun-verb pairs with /f/ in the noun but /v/ in the verb, creating a pair belief : believe on the model of e.g. grief : grieve or proof : prove.

Synonyms

assumptionpremisefaithopiniontenetconviction

Antonyms

disbelief

This word in other languages

creencia(Español)croyance(Français)Glauben(Deutsch)crença(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbelief
  • beilef
  • beleif
  • belieff
  • belife
  • bellief
  • bleief
  • eblief

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of belief - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

bbelief1beilef2beleif2belieff1belife2bellief1bleief2eblief2
Edit distance from "belief"

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 "belief"?
"belief" is spelled B-E-L-I-E-F. The IPA pronunciation is /bɪˈliːf/.
What does "belief" mean?
As a noun, "belief" means: Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
What words are commonly confused with "belief"?
"belief" is commonly confused with "brief", "belle", "Belize". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "belief"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "belief" is /bɪˈliːf/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "belief"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-West Germanic *laubu Old English lēafa Middle English bileve English belief From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu from Proto-G... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "belief", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

breaks#3,213colors#3,221courts#3,224Donald#3,225

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

shock8 variantsthick8 variantsthrew8 variantschart8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list