Beat versus beet is another pair of heterographs (a subset of homophone), so it’s understandable that people confuse this pair.
However, it’s still important to understand the difference — and understand that spellcheck does not check context. It only verifies that a word is spelled correctly. So if your character plans to beet a man to death, know that beet juice does stain . . .
It would be less confusing if the character beats him, although to the death might be a bit much.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Beat | Beet |
|---|---|
Daddy, I’m Beat by Shari Weinsheimer is under the CC0 1.0 license, via Flickr. |
Beets is in the public domain, via PxFuel. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective; Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive
Plural for the noun and third person present verb: beats |
Noun
Plural: beets |
| Adjective: [Informal; Predic.] Completely exhausted [Attrib.] Relating to the beat generation or its philosophy Noun:
The movement of a bird’s wings An area allocated to a police officer to patrol
[From the use of a stage direction referring to such a pause] Brief pause or moment of hesitation, typically one lasting a specified length [Informal] Short for beatnik Verb, intransitive:
[Of the heart] Pulsate [Of a bird] Fly making rhythmic wing movements [Sailing; with adverbial of direction] Sail into the wind, following a zigzag course with repeated tacking Verb, transitive:
Defeat (someone) in a game or other competitive situation
Succeed in getting somewhere ahead of (someone)
[Of a bird] Move (the wings) up and down Stir (cooking ingredients) vigorously with a fork, whisk, or beater to make a smooth or frothy mixture |
An herbaceous plant widely cultivated as a source of food for humans and livestock, and for processing into sugar
[North American] The edible dark red spherical root of a kind of beet, eaten as a vegetable
[beet greens] The leaves of such a plant, served as a salad or cooked vegetable |
| Examples: | |
| Adjective: I’m beat — I need an hour or so to rest. I feel beat and out of ideas. The beat poet Allen Ginsberg is best known for his poem “Howl” in which he denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. Irwin Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac formed the core of the Beat Generation. Noun: The music changed to a funky disco beat. The beat of the wipers became almost hypnotic. He heard the beat of a drum. His heart has a beat. “The superposition of two waves of similar but not identical frequencies produces a pulsing known as a beat” (Interactions). We heard the beat of the swallow’s wings as they dove after midges. There was a public clamor for more police officers on the beat. Pete was a patrolman who strived to make his beat a safe one. Her beat ended at 6 a.m. A few, new to their beat, looked at him with interest. His beat is construction, property, and hotels. She waited for a beat of three seconds. Perhaps he was a Beat born too early. Verb, intransitive: Sid beat on the door with the flat of his hand. Emmie began to beat at the flames. Outside the rain beat against the windows. Her heart beat faster with panic. An owl beat low over the salt marsh. We beat southward all that first day. Verb, transitive: The victims were beaten to death with baseball bats. They beat me with a stick and punched me. He beat the table with his hand. Upright cleaners have a motorized head which beats the carpet to loosen the dirt. Pure gold can be beaten out to form very thin sheets. She beat her fists against the wood. The pushers beat the grass to flush the pheasants out. She beat him easily at chess. The Senators beat out the Yankees for the 1933 pennant. He beat heroin addiction in 1992. They are investing their savings in hopes of beating inflation. He beat his own world record. You can’t beat the taste of fresh raspberries. It beats me how you manage to work in this heat. The goalie beat him to the ball. I could beat him on my bicycle. They set off early to beat the traffic. Doves wheel around the rooftops, beating their wings. Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Beat the cream into the mixture. |
Some varieties of beets are grown for their leaves and some for their large nutritious root.
Beets are part of the family Chenopodiaceae. I adore pickled beets. My sister makes the best pickled beets. Beet greens, lemon, red pepper flakes, and olive oil make a great vegetable dish. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: beatable Noun: beater, underbeat Verb: overbeat, overbeaten, overbeating |
Adjective: beetlike Noun: beetroot |
| Phrasal Verb | |
| beat back beat down beat off beat out beat up beat up on |
|
| History of the Word: | |
| Old English bēatan is of Germanic origin. | Old English bēte is of West Germanic origin, from the Latin beta, perhaps of Celtic origin and related to the Dutch beet and the German Bete. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Beat versus Beet
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: beet
“Interactions with Sound Waves.” Lumen Learning. n.d. Web. 4 Aug 2021. <https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/interactions-with-sound-waves/>.
Lexico: beat
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Playing Drums and Beets are both in the public domain, via PxFuel.
