belly
/ˈbɛli/
"belly" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“belly” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,026 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,026
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The abdomen (especially a fat one).
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 | belly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɛli/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,026 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for belly is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɛli/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,026 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for belly, with forms such as "bbelly", "bellyy", and "bely". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bey", "bly", "bill", 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 *bʰelǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, b… The correct English form is belly, spelled B-E-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1The abdomen (especially a fat one).
- 2stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)
- 3uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth)
- 4The lower fuselage of an airplane.
- 5The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).
- 6The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).
- 7The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-West Germanic *balgi, *balgu, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz, *balguz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg, Danish bælg, Old Irish bolg, Welsh bol. Doublet of bellows, blague, bulge, and budge. See also bellows. For the belly — bellows connection compare typologically Macedonian мев (mev, “abdomen, belly; bellows”). Also compare Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows; bladder; ...”), Latin venter — vēsīca, Russian пу́зо (púzo) — пузы́рь (puzýrʹ), пузырёк (puzyrjók).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbelly,bellyy,bely,belyl,blely,eblly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of belly - 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 "belly"?
What does "belly" mean?
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Using “belly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-L-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɛli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bey” - see the side-by-side comparison. belly vs bey
- 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.