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 May 6, 2026) - To sorrow about or over; care about; fill with care or sorrow; make sad.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | besorrow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “besorrow” sits in English frequency
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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “besorrow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-S-O-R-R-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.