besorrow
"besorrow" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“besorrow” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To sorrow about or over; care about; fill with care or sorrow; make sad.
Corpus desk
Index EN-besorrow · besorrow · English
besorrow · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | besorrow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “besorrow” in English
Rare enough to double-check
besorrow is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To sorrow about or over; care about; fill with care or sorrow; make sad.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for besorrow in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bisorȝen, from Old English besorgian (“to regret; be anxious about, dread, shrink from”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisorgōn, equivalent to be- + sorrow. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bisúurgje (“to obtain, get, take care of”), West Fri… The correct English form is besorrow, spelled B-E-S-O-R-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1To sorrow about or over; care about; fill with care or sorrow; make sad.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how besorrow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Then to the woman, for her offence, God did pronounce this sore sentence: All pleasure that you had'st besorrow Shall changed be in lasting sorrow.
The land of the West holds a maiden sweet, And the fairest face has she; But, oh! she has also Chicago feet, And that's what besorrows me.
Etymology
From Middle English bisorȝen, from Old English besorgian (“to regret; be anxious about, dread, shrink from”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisorgōn, equivalent to be- + sorrow. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bisúurgje (“to obtain, get, take care of”), West Frisian besoargje (“to provide, deliver”), Dutch bezorgen (“to provide, deliver, take care of”), German besorgen (“to procure, acquire, attend to, take care of”), Swedish besörja (“to deal with, attend to”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.