besom
/ˈbiː.zəm/noun
besom is a noun meaning “A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-E-S-O-M, and it appears about once in every 32 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of besom is besoms.
What does besom mean?
noun
- 1
A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
- 2
ScotlandderogatoryA troublesome woman.
- 3
Any cleansing or purifying agent.
verb
- 1
archaicTo sweep.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce besom?
- /ˈbiː.zəm/
- /ˈbɛ.zəm/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-besom.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of besom
- besoms plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- besoming participle, present
- besomed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is besom?
Besom appears about once in every 32 million words in written English, the 171,907th 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).
Besom in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense broom:
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 besom come from?
From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).