make believe
"make-believe" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“make believe” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To pretend or imagine.
Corpus desk
Index EN-make-believe · make believe · English
make believe · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" 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 | make believe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “make believe” in English
Rare enough to double-check
make believe is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To pretend or imagine.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for make believe, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is make believe, spelled M-A-K-E- -B-E-L-I-E-V-E.
Definition
- 1To pretend or imagine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how make believe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Let's make believe that we are explorers.
Only make believe I love you, / Only make believe that you love me. / Others find peace of mind in pretending, / Couldn’t you? / Couldn’t I? / Couldn’t we? / Make believe our lips are blending / In a phantom kiss, or two, or three. / Might as well make believe I love you, / For to tell the truth I do.
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.