Skip to main content
PlainSpell

betroth

be·troth/bəˈtɹoʊð/obsolete

betroth is spelled B-E-T-R-O-T-H, 2 syllables: be·troth. The wrong spelling people search most is bethroth: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Betroth is a verb meaning “Of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one's troth to”.

How many letters and syllables are in betroth?

Letters7: B-E-T-R-O-T-H
Syllables2: be·troth
In writingabout once in every 30 million words; the 165,739th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, bethroth, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell betroth?

Betroth is spelled B-E-T-R-O-T-H. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for betroth in either form.

betroththe right spelling130 searches a month
bethrothan extra h20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is betroth?

Betroth appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce betroth?

  • UK /bɪˈtɹəʊð/
  • UK /-ˈtɹəʊθ/
  • US /bəˈtɹoʊð/

Betroth has 2 syllables, split be·troth in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-betroth.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-betroth.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Jjamesryan-betroth.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with betroth?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as betroth from its last stressed vowel (/oʊð/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of betroth

  • betroths present, singular, he/she/it
  • betrothing participle, present
  • betrothed past, participle, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • betrothen participle, past
  • betrothes present, singular, he/she/it

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does betroth mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    archaicOf a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one's troth to.

  2. 2

    archaicOften of a parent or guardian: to promise that (two people) be married to each other; specifically and chiefly, to promise that (a woman) be given in marriage to a man; to affiance.

    He betrothed his daughter to a distant relative.

  3. 3

    archaicOf God: to enter into a relationship with (believers, or the church as a whole); also, of a priest: to pledge (himself) to the church prior to being consecrated as a bishop.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo pledge or promise oneself to (a cause); to espouse; also (sometimes reflexive), to pledge or promise (oneself or one's efforts) to a cause or to do something.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Betroth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchse fiancer (of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a…), fiancer (often of a parent or guardian: to promise that…)
Germansich verloben (of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a…), verloben (often of a parent or guardian: to promise that…)
Spanishcomprometerse en matrimonio, desposarse (of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a…), prometer (en matrimonio), comprometer en matrimonio, desposar (often of a parent or guardian: to promise that…)
Portugueseprometer (often of a parent or guardian: to promise that…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

What to look up after betroth