believes
/bɪˈliːvz/
"believes" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“believes” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #3,409. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #3,409
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - third-person singular simple present indicative of believe
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 | believes |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈliːvz/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #3,409 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “believes” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around believes (IPA /bɪˈliːvz/), averb. Corpus frequency is #3,409 among 31,241 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "third-person singular simple present indicative of believe".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for believes, with forms such as "bbelieves", "beileves", and "beleives". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "belive", "believe", "believed", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is believes, spelled B-E-L-I-E-V-E-S.
Definition
- 1third-person singular simple present indicative of believe
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbelieves
- beileves
- beleives
- belieevs
- believess
- believse
- believves
- belivees
- bellieves
- bleieves
- eblieves
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of believes - 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
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Using “believes”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-L-I-E-V-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈliːvz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “belive” - see the side-by-side comparison. believes vs belive
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.