English Word Reference Free

believed

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

8 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "believed", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "believed" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "believed" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

believed is aEnglishverb. It means: simple past and past participle of believe Pronounced /bɪˈliːvd/. It ranks #1,810 in English word frequency. Often confused with belive and beloved.

Key facts for believed
PropertyValue
Headwordbelieved
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/bɪˈliːvd/
Letters8
Frequency rank#1,810
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of believed in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for believed is 8 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪˈliːvd/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,810 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past and past participle of believe".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for believed, with forms such as "bbelieved", "beileved", and "beleived". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "belive", "beloved", "believes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is believed, spelled B-E-L-I-E-V-E-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of believe

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbelieved,beileved,beleived,belieevd,believde,believedd,believved,beliveed,bellieved,bleieved,eblieved

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for believed

Misspelling Variants of "believed"

bbelieved9beileved8beleived8belieevd8believde8believedd9believved9beliveed8
Misspelling Variants of "believed"

Frequency rank: #1,810 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "believed"?
"believed" is spelled B-E-L-I-E-V-E-D. The IPA pronunciation is /bɪˈliːvd/.
What does "believed" mean?
As a verb, "believed" means: simple past and past participle of believe
What words are commonly confused with "believed"?
"believed" is commonly confused with "belive", "beloved", "believes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "believed"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "believed" is /bɪˈliːvd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "believed" come from?
"believed" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.