betaine
"betaine" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“betaine” is uncommon English (frequency #88,115 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #88,115
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sweet, crystalline compound (not an alkaloid), trimethylammoniumacetate, found in sugar beet and similar plants, sometimes used to treat muscular degeneracy; the zwitterion (CH₃)₃N⁺CH₂COO⁻
Corpus desk
Index EN-betaine · betaine · English
betaine · rank #88,115 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #88,115
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH berthe
Nearest frequency peer: berthe (-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 “betaine”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Benno
Benno
11,891 corpus weight
- Benoist
Benoist
11,890 corpus weight
- berthe
berthe
11,887 corpus weight
- betaine
betaine
11,886 corpus weight
- betide
betide
11,885 corpus weight
- bettor
bettor
11,884 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “betaine” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | betaine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #88,115 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “betaine” in English
Rare enough to double-check
betaine is uncommon English at frequency #88,115 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for betaine, 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 no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin, from Latin bēta (“beet”) + -ine. The correct English form is betaine, spelled B-E-T-A-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1A sweet, crystalline compound (not an alkaloid), trimethylammoniumacetate, found in sugar beet and similar plants, sometimes used to treat muscular degeneracy; the zwitterion (CH₃)₃N⁺CH₂COO⁻
- 2Any derivative of this compound.
- 3Any similar compound, based on sulfur or phosphorus etc, having an onium ion with no hydrogen atom adjacent to the anionic atom.
Etymology
From New Latin, from Latin bēta (“beet”) + -ine.
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
How do you spell "betaine"?
What does "betaine" mean?
What is the origin of the word "betaine"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "betaine", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).