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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ben.

A prayer; a petition.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. A prayer; a petition.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bōjana Proto-Indo-European *-nis Proto-Germanic *-niz Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-nis Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-ni-s Proto-Germanic *bōniz Proto-West Germanic *bōni Old English bēn Middle English ben, beneder. English ben From Middle English ben, bene, from Old English bēn (“prayer, request, favor, compulsory service”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōni, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say”). Related to ban. More at boon.

prep/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. In, into.

    Northern-England · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ben, bene, variation of bin, binne (“within”), from Old English binnan (“within, in, inside of, into”), equivalent to be- + in.

adv/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. Inside.

    Northern-England · Scotland · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ben, bene, variation of bin, binne (“within”), from Old English binnan (“within, in, inside of, into”), equivalent to be- + in.

adj/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. Inner, interior.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English ben, bene, variation of bin, binne (“within”), from Old English binnan (“within, in, inside of, into”), equivalent to be- + in.

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. The inner room of a two-room cottage (as opposed to the but); the ben room.

    Northern-England · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ben, bene, variation of bin, binne (“within”), from Old English binnan (“within, in, inside of, into”), equivalent to be- + in.

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. A tree, Moringa oleifera or horseradish tree of Arabia and India, which produces oil of ben.

  2. The winged seed of the ben tree.

  3. The oil of the ben seed.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English been, from Old French and Medieval Latin, probably from a North African pronunciation of Arabic بَان (bān, “ben tree”).

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. Son of (used with Hebrew and Arabic surnames).

    capitalized · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Arabic بِن (bin) and Hebrew בן (ben, “son”).

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. A Scottish or Irish mountain or high peak.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots ben, benn, from Scottish Gaelic beinn.

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. A benefit (performance to raise funds).

    UK · obsolete · slang
Where this word comes from

Shortening.

adj/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. Alternative spelling of bene; good.

    UK · alt-of · alternative · obsolete
Where this word comes from

c. 16th century. Probably from Latin bene or Italian bene.

noun/bɛn//bɪn/pin-pen-merger

  1. Alternative form of bin.

    Ireland · alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.