Which to use
“behind” is an adverb and “beyond” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,197
- “behind” frequency rank
- #29,660
- “beyond” frequency rank
- 66857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | behind | beyond |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Derrière. | Au-delà de, outre. |
Where the eye mixes behind and beyond
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: behind vs beyond
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: behind is [bɪ.ˈhaɪnd] while beyond is \bi.ˈɑnd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
behind is recorded at frequency rank #37,197, classified as anadv, pronounced [bɪ.ˈhaɪnd]. beyond is at rank #29,660, tagged as aprep, pronounced \bi.ˈɑnd\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 66857, this pair ranks #65,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of behind vs beyond
Shared letters: bden. Private to "behind": hi. Private to "beyond": oy.
"behind" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "beyond" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "behind" for "beyond" ever safe?
Which is more common, "behind" or "beyond"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "behind" and "beyond" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "behind" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "beyond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "behind" and "beyond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begin vs behind". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #65,967 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.