born
/bɔːn/
"born" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“born” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #843. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #843
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - past participle of bear; given birth to.
Corpus desk
Index EN-born · born · English
born · rank #843 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #843
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 31,241
- PHOTO-FINISH attack
Nearest frequency peer: attack (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “born”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- add
add
99,161 corpus weight
- article
article
99,160 corpus weight
- attack
attack
99,159 corpus weight
- born
born
99,158 corpus weight
- couldn't
couldn't
99,157 corpus weight
- damn
damn
99,156 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “born” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | born |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /bɔːn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #843 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “born” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around born (IPA /bɔːn/), averb. Corpus frequency is #843 among 31,241 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for born, with forms such as "bborn", "bonr", and "bornn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "br", "boy", "box", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Sa… The correct English form is born, spelled B-O-R-N.
Definition
- 1past participle of bear; given birth to.
- 2past participle of bear in other senses.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how born appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Although not born in the country, she qualifies for nationality through her grandparents.
In some monasteries the severity of the clausure is hard to be born.
Etymology
From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bborn
- bonr
- bornn
- borrn
- bron
- obrn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of born - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "born", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
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.