spill the beans
/ˌspɪl ðə ˈbiːnz/
"spill-the-beans" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spill the beans” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To reveal a secret; to disclose information.
Corpus desk
Index EN-spill-the-beans · spill the beans · English
spill the beans · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" 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 | spill the beans |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˌspɪl ðə ˈbiːnz/ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “spill the beans” in English
Rare enough to double-check
spill the beans is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˌspɪl ðə ˈbiːnz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To reveal a secret; to disclose information.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for spill the beans, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 20th century American English. One possible origin for the phrase is from an Ancient Greek practice of using different-coloured beans for voting, where spilling the jar containing them would unwantedly reveal the results, though this might… The correct English form is spill the beans, spelled S-P-I-L-L- -T-H-E- -B-E-A-N-S.
Definition
- 1To reveal a secret; to disclose information.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how spill the beans appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.
I guarantee you, someone's going to spill the beans and next thing this shit's all over the news.
Etymology
First attested in 20th century American English. One possible origin for the phrase is from an Ancient Greek practice of using different-coloured beans for voting, where spilling the jar containing them would unwantedly reveal the results, though this might be folk etymology.
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.