heaven forbid
"heaven-forbid" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heaven forbid” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - May heaven forbid it: expresses the desire that something does not happen.
Corpus desk
Index EN-heaven-forbid · heaven forbid · English
heaven forbid · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | heaven forbid |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “heaven forbid” in English
Rare enough to double-check
heaven forbid is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "May heaven forbid it: expresses the desire that something does not happen.".
No misspelling variants are generated for heaven forbid in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is heaven forbid, spelled H-E-A-V-E-N- -F-O-R-B-I-D.
Definition
- 1May heaven forbid it: expresses the desire that something does not happen.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how heaven forbid appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Now, by Our Lady's grace," cried the Butcher, "well do I know thy name, and many a time have I heard thy deeds both sung and spoken of. But Heaven forbid that thou shouldst take aught of me! An honest man am I, and have wronged neither man nor maid; so trouble me not, good master, as I have never troubled thee." "Nay, Heaven forbid, indeed," quoth Robin,…
Here’s the worst case scenario: You’ve just wasted your time on a few meaningless Tinder messages and not an actual date—or heaven forbid, a full-blown relationship.
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.