beriberi
noun
beriberi is spelled B-E-R-I-B-E-R-I: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, beriberi means “An ailment caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1), leading to lethargy and organ complications” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of beriberi is beriberis.
How many letters and syllables are in beriberi?
| Letters | 8: B-E-R-I-B-E-R-I |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 17 million words; the 122,704th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is beriberi?
Beriberi appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th 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 beriberi?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-beriberi.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of beriberi
- beriberis plural
- beri-beri
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does beriberi mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An ailment caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1), leading to lethargy and organ complications.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Beriberi in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pathology: ailment caused by deficiency of vitamin B:
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 beriberi come from?
Possibly borrowed from Sinhalese phrase බැරි බැරි (bæri bæri, “I cannot, I cannot”) due to weakness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).