Behest

Definition: Behest

Behest

Noun

1. An authoritative command or request.

Date "behest" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Command	Noun: command, order, ordinance, act, fiat, hukm, bidding, dictum, hest, behest, call, beck, nod.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Behest

English words defined with "behest": Word of command. (references)

Specialty definitions using "behest": hollised ♦ OBSOLETE WORDS. (references)

Title	Author	Quote
Scarlet Letter	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	As the life and good fame of yonder man were in your hands, there seemed no choice to me, save to be silent, in accordance with your behest.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Children	Tanzania	In some districts, the attendance of girls continued to decline as the result of the need to care for younger siblings, household work, and early marriage, often at the behest of parents. (references)
Civil Liberties	Pakistan	Christian leaders allege that the case was filed at the behest of Mohammad Ibrahim, a Sunni Muslim educator who owned a rival school in the same village. (references)
Economic History	Bangladesh	Acting at Zia's behest, Sayem dissolved Parliament, promising fresh elections in 1977, and instituted martial law. (references)
Human Rights	Russia	At the behest of procurators, the military collegium of the Supreme Court then dismissed the earlier conviction, sending the case back to the Pacific Military Court to be retried for the more serious charges of espionage and treason. (references)
Minorities	Ghana	In January 1999, the Nipa-O-Nipa and Sika-O-Sika factions of Kumasi's ethnic Moshie community signed a peace agreement at the behest of the then Regional Minister. (references)
Political Economy	BANGLADESH	Policy instability, when policies are altered at the behest of special interests, creates difficulties for foreign companies. (references)
Worker Rights	China	Local experts on child labor estimate that the number is in the tens of thousands and that the overwhelming majority of these children work at the behest of their families, especially in impoverished rural areas, to supplement family income. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Behest" is generally used as an adjective (superlative) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Behest" is used about 111 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (superlative)	100%	111	30,796

Expression using "behest": at smb.'s behest. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "behest"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		urdhër (bidding, command, commandment, decoration, decree, dictate, dictation, edict, injunction, mandate, order, prescript, prescription, warrant, word). (various references)

Arabic		‏وصية (bequest, charge, commandment, device, injunction, instruction, legacy, precept, testament, will), ‏توصية (commendation, order, recommendation, reference, testament, testimonial), ‏أمر (affair, charge, command, decree, dictate, direct, direction, enjoin, fiat, give an order, instruct, instruction, intimation, matter, officer, ordain, order, ordinance, prescribe, prescript, prescription, sound, thing, warn, word). (various references)

Bulgarian		завет (covenant, message, testament, trust), повеление (bidding, command). (various references)

Czech		přikázání (commandment). (various references)

French		ordre, commandement. (various references)

German		geheiß (bidding). (various references)

Greek		εντολή (assignation, assignment, command, commandment, control, delegation, injunction, instruction, mandate, order, precept, prescript, prescription, requisition, statement, task), διαταγή (bid, bidding, command, dictate, dictation, injunction, mandate, order, prescript). (various references)

Hebrew		מצו�" (command, commandment, duty, law, obligation, precept), פקו�"�" (command, fiat, imperative, order, ordinance), צו (command, decree, edict, fiat, imperative, order, ordinance, prescription, say so). (various references)

Hungarian		rendelkezés (command, dispensation, disposition, instructions, mandate, ordainment, provision, provisions, ruling), parancs (bidding, cdr, comd, command, dictate, dictation, fiat, injunction, mandate, order, precept, say-so, warrant). (various references)

Italian		ordine (arrangement, array, association, collating sequence, command, instruction, nature, order, order of schema, orderliness, orderly, orders, rank, sequence, tidiness, tidy, warrant, word). (various references)

Manx		oardagh (arrangement, array, canon, commission, decree, decretory, direction, directive, dispensation, fiat, order, ordinance, rite, ritual, sequence). (various references)

Pig Latin		ehestbay

Portuguese		ordem (appointment, arrangement, array, bidding, collating sequence, command, commandment, commission, dictate, dictation, disposal, fib, formative, geocentric, group, harmonic number, harmonic order, kimono, line up, mandate, order, orderliness, ordinance, precept, prescription, range, rank, regularity, sequence, signal, summons, writ), comando (bidding, captaincy, charge, command, command signal, commando, conduct, control, energy, leadership, leading, mastery, order, power, primer, steering, tune up). (various references)

Romanian		poruncã (bidding, charge, command, commandment, dictation, injunction, order, word). (various references)

Russian		завет (testament), повеление. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		naredba (command, fiat, instruction, order, ordination, rescript), nalog (command, dictate, dictation, injunction, order, warrant). (various references)

Spanish		requerimiento (demand, demand for payment, injunction, notice, request, summons), petición (appeal, application, claim, demand, entreaty, inquiry, instance, petition, plea, representation, request, request primitive, search request, suit, supplication), mandato (command, commandment, dictate, dictation, fiat, injunction, instruction, mandate, order, task, term, warrant). (various references)

Swedish		befallning (charge, command, dictate, imperative, order, say so, word). (various references)

Turkish		buyruk (command, commandment, ipse dixit, order, rescript), emir (ameer, amir, bidding, charge, command, commandment, decree, dictate, dictation, direction, disposal, disposition, emir, fiat, imperatival, imperative, jussive, mandate, order, precept, prescription, ukase, word, word of command). (various references)

Ukranian		веління (dictate), наказ (command, commandment, decree, decretal, delegation, dictate, injunction, mandate, order, prescript, telling, wish, writ), заповідь (commandment, precept). (various references)

Welsh		archiad (bidding), arch (ark, bidding, coffin, petition, request, trunk, waist). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "behest": behests. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Behest" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bathest, Bechet, beest, Behdet, Beheshti, Behet, Behistun, Benesch, berest, betest, boyest, ebhs. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "behest" (pronounced bi'he"st)
3	-e" s t	abreast, acquiesced, addressed, arrest, assessed, attest, bequest, best, blessed, blest, breast, Celeste, chest, coalesced, compressed, confessed, congest, crest, depressed, detest, digest, digressed, dispossessed, distressed, divest, dressed, expressed, fessed, finessed, gest, guessed, guest, impressed, infest, ingest, invest, jest, lest, messed, molest, nest, northwest, obsessed, oppressed, pest, possessed, pressed, Prest, professed, progressed, quest, rearrest, reassessed, recessed, reinvest, repossessed, repressed, request, rest, retest, southwest, stressed, suggest, suppressed, test, transgressed, unaddressed, undressed, unimpressed, unrest, vest, West, wrest, zest.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: thebes.
	Words within the letters "b-e-e-h-s-t"
	-1 letter: beets, beset, beths, hebes, sheet, thebe, these.
	-2 letters: bees, beet, best, beth, bets, eths, hebe, hest, hets, tees, thee.
	-3 letters: bee, bet, eth, hes, het, see, set, she, tee, the.
	-4 letters: be, eh, es, et, he, sh.
	Words containing the letters "b-e-e-h-s-t"
	+1 letter: behests, bethels, bheesty, sherbet.
	+2 letters: bedsheet, besoothe, bethesda, bheestie, blethers, breathes, herbiest, sherbert, sherbets, subtheme.
	+3 letters: beachiest, beclothes, bedsheets, beechiest, beechnuts, behemoths, benthoses, bequeaths, beshouted, besoothed, besoothes, bethesdas, bewitches, bheesties, boehmites, breathers, deathbeds, hebetates, hebetudes, sherberts, subthemes, thebaines.
	+4 letters: bedclothes, besmoothed, betrotheds, biathletes, bitcheries, blatherers, blithesome, botcheries, bothersome, breathiest, breathless, broadsheet, brochettes, butcheries, eyebrights, hartebeest, heartbeats, hereabouts, hibernates, inbreathes, terebinths, trebuchets.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.