betide
/bɪˈtaɪd/
"betide" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“betide” is uncommon English (frequency #88,116 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #88,116
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | betide |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɪˈtaɪd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #88,116 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “betide” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
betide is uncommon English at frequency #88,116 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /bɪˈtaɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for betide in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bityden [and other forms]; from bi- (prefix forming verbs, usually with a completive, figurative, or intensive sense) + tyden (“to come about, happen, occur; to befall, become of, happen to (someone); to be the fate of (someone); to awai… The correct English form is betide, spelled B-E-T-I-D-E.
Definition
- 1Often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall.
- 2Chiefly in the third person: to happen; to take place; to bechance, to befall.
Etymology
From Middle English bityden [and other forms]; from bi- (prefix forming verbs, usually with a completive, figurative, or intensive sense) + tyden (“to come about, happen, occur; to befall, become of, happen to (someone); to be the fate of (someone); to await (someone); to fare, get along”); tyden is derived from Old English tīdan (“to befall, betide, happen”), related to tīd (“time; season; hour”) (both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”) or its extended form *deh₂-y-, whence *dh₂ítis (“time”)) + -an (suffix forming the infinitive of most verbs). The English word is analysable as be- + tide (“(obsolete) to happen, occur”).
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.
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Using “betide”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-E-T-I-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪˈtaɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.