has-been
/ˈhæz.biːn/
"has-been" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“has-been” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person, especially one who was formerly popular or influential, who continues in their field after their popularity or effectiveness has peaked and is now in decline.
Corpus desk
Index EN-has-been · has-been · English
has-been · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | has-been |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhæz.biːn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “has-been” in English
Rare enough to double-check
has-been is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhæz.biːn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person, especially one who was formerly popular or influential, who continues in their field after their popularity or effectiveness has peaked and is now in decline.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for has-been in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is has-been, spelled H-A-S---B-E-E-N.
Definition
- 1A person, especially one who was formerly popular or influential, who continues in their field after their popularity or effectiveness has peaked and is now in decline.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how has-been appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
When the aforesaid alderman or another wishes to express mild contemptuosity for his fellows and himself in future I would suggest “old fossils” or “old has beens,” or “old fogies,” then the Sir Galahads that are always riding—or driving—about in this progressive dorp will not have any cause to complain.
I think Apple Computer is a has-been.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.