I beg your pardon
"i-beg-your-pardon" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“I beg your pardon” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used to express an apology for an action.
Corpus desk
Index EN-i-beg-your-pardon · I beg your pardon · English
I beg your pardon · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" 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 | I beg your pardon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “I beg your pardon” in English
Rare enough to double-check
I beg your pardon is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for I beg your pardon, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is I beg your pardon, spelled I- -B-E-G- -Y-O-U-R- -P-A-R-D-O-N.
Definition
- 1Used to express an apology for an action.
- 2Used to request something, for example if a statement was not heard.
- 3Used to ask for clarification of something said if it is unexpected, odd or seen as rude without context.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how I beg your pardon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. “Would you like cats if you were me?” “Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing tone: “don’t be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you’d take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,” Alice went on, half to herself, as…
York got down and said very respectfully, "I beg your pardon, my lady, but these horses have not been reined up for three years, and my lord said it would be safer to bring them to it by degrees; but if your ladyship pleases, I can take them up a little more."
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.