have bats in one's belfry
"have-bats-in-one-s-belfry" is a 20-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“have bats in one's belfry” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 25
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To be crazy or eccentric.
Corpus desk
Index EN-have-bats-in-one-s-belfr · have bats in one's belfry · English
have bats in one's belfry · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 25 letters
- VOW-8 8 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 | have bats in one's belfry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 25 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “have bats in one's belfry” in English
Rare enough to double-check
have bats in one's belfry is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To be crazy or eccentric.".
have bats in one's belfry has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1899, from tendency of bats to fly around erratically, with “belfry” indicating “head, mind”. The correct English form is have bats in one's belfry, spelled H-A-V-E- -B-A-T-S- -I-N- -O-N-E-'-S- -B-E-L-F-R-Y.
Definition
- 1To be crazy or eccentric.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how have bats in one's belfry appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Anyone declaring himself Emperor of San Francisco probably had bats in his belfry.
You would certainly take the prize for bats in the belfry!--flying off on a wild-goose chase across a country where even the geese need a compass to keep to the course.
Etymology
1899, from tendency of bats to fly around erratically, with “belfry” indicating “head, mind”.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.