Meanings
bae1
plural baes
- slangDarling (term of endearment).
A fresh pic of you and your bae on vacay together? Who wouldn't “like” that?!?
2014, "How Steamy Is Your PDA?", Seventeen, June/July 2014, page 982 more examples
And if you actually want to see your bae – you know, like in person – You better set aside some of your refund check to pay for the $26 train ticket to a school that lingers outside of the tri-state area.
2013, "Jack", "Jack & Jill: On High School Relationships", The Torch (St. John's University), Volume 91, Issue 5, 28 August 2013, page 9Your newsfeed gets clogged with statuses like “Happy Valentine’s Day to my bae! I’ve loved you so much ever since we first met three months, eight days, 11 hours and 27 minutes ago!”
2014, Laken Howard, "Pillow Talk: Let's talk about V-day", The Current (entertainment insert of The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University), 13 February 2014, page 3Synonyms: babe, baby, darling, dear, love, sweetheart, loved one, significant other
bae2
bae3
present singular third person baes · participle present baeing · participle past baed · past baed
- intransitiveTo make the sound of a wild animal, to bay.
He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear.
c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 3, scene 3, line 701 more example
...the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when he bleats.
c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 2, scene 1, line 10
BAe4
- abbreviationinitialismInitialism of British Aerospace.
BAE5
- Alternative letter-case form of BAe (“British Aerospace”).
- initialismuncountablegovernmentThe ship prefix for ships of the navy of Ecuador.
Bae6
- A surname from Korean.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounDarling (term of endearment).
Origin
bae · noun
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰā-
- Proto-Germanic*bō-redup.
- Proto-Germanic*babô
- Proto-West Germanic*babō
- Old English*baba
- Middle Englishbabe
- Englishbabe
- Englishbae
Syncopic form of babe or baby. Notably, it is sometimes incorrectly linked to the unrelated Danish word bæ (“poop”). Sometimes claimed to derive from "before anyone else", a possible backronym.
Full word history & related roots →bae · noun
- Korean배
- Englishbae
From Korean 배 (bae).
More words from Korean
Full word history & related roots →bae · verb
- Old Frenchbaier
- Old Frenchbay
- Englishbae
From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form Old French baier, abaier.
More words from Old French
Full word history & related roots →BAE · proper noun, noun
- SpanishBAE
- EnglishBAE
* (Ecuadoran Navy): Spanish BAE
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Bae · proper noun
- Korean배
- EnglishBae
Borrowed from Korean 배 (bae).
More words from Korean
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish BAE
- BAEship of Ecuador
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with bae
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
bae. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bae
“bae.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bae. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bae,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bae.
Source: bae on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.