bestiary
/ˈbiːstiˌɛɹi/
"bestiary" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bestiary” is uncommon English (frequency #68,869 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,869
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A medieval treatise of various real or imaginary animals.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bestiary · bestiary · English
bestiary · rank #68,869 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #68,869
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Besser
Nearest frequency peer: Besser (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “bestiary”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- belch
belch
31,138 corpus weight
- Besser
Besser
31,133 corpus weight
- bestiary
bestiary
31,132 corpus weight
- BGM
BGM
31,131 corpus weight
- bibliotheca
bibliotheca
31,130 corpus weight
- Birks
Birks
31,127 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bestiary” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bestiary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbiːstiˌɛɹi/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #68,869 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bestiary” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bestiary is uncommon English at frequency #68,869 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbiːstiˌɛɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
bestiary doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast + -ary. The correct English form is bestiary, spelled B-E-S-T-I-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A medieval treatise of various real or imaginary animals.
- 2A collection of various beasts, depicted in art, literature, or the like.
- 3A list or guidebook of the monsters to be found in a roleplaying game.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bestiary appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Back in the 60s, Robin Boyd told us how ugly Australian architecture was. As his valediction, he has left us a bestiary of ugly Australians.
This book is not actually a bestiary. It is what most people think a bestiary is—namely an assemblage of vividly imagined beasts who behave somewhat quirkily, bear only the vaguest application to real life, […]
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast + -ary.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bestiary", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).