besiege
be·siege/bəˈsiːd͡ʒ/verb
besiege is spelled B-E-S-I-E-G-E, 2 syllables: be·siege. The wrong spelling people search most is beseige: about 90 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Besiege is a verb meaning “To beset or surround with armed forces for the purpose of compelling to surrender, to lay siege to, beleaguer”.
How many letters and syllables are in besiege?
| Letters | 7: B-E-S-I-E-G-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: be·siege |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 62,179th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, beseige, about 90 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell besiege?
Besiege is spelled B-E-S-I-E-G-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for besiege in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is besiege?
Besiege appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 62,179th 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 besiege?
- /bəˈsiːd͡ʒ/
Besiege has 2 syllables, split be·siege in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-besiege.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of besiege
- besieges present, singular, he/she/it
- besieging participle, present
- besieged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does besiege mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To beset or surround with armed forces for the purpose of compelling to surrender, to lay siege to, beleaguer.
- 2
To beleaguer, to vex, to lay siege to, to beset.
- 3
To assail or ply, as with requests or demands.
The box office was besieged by fans wanting tickets.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Besiege in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | assiéger , assaillir |
| German | belagern, einkesseln, umzingeln, umstellen , bedrängen |
| Portuguese | cercar, sitiar, assediar |
| Spanish | asediar, sitiar, poner sitio , asaetear, saetear, asaetar |
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 besiege come from?
From Middle English besegen, bisegen, equivalent to be- (“around, about”) + siege.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).