What is the difference between "belive" and "believe"?

The words belive and believe are often confused because they have a similar spelling. But what is the difference?

Belive is obsolete and is hardly ever used—I've never used it before in 40 years of English writing and speaking. You almost certainly want to use believe. It appears about 4,222 times more frequently than belive.

A good way to remember the difference is that believe ends in -eve. Some people believe that Eve was the first woman.

Believe means to hold an opinion or accept something as true. Some synonyms are: credit, regard, trust, think, suppose.

• Do you believe in God?
• I believe in liberty and justice for all.

Belive means to remain, stay, or abide. It’s not used very often more, except in certain dialects. In parts of Scotland, it is used as an adverb that means soon.

• He’ll arrive at the pub belive.

Should it be I do not believe or I do not belive?

The correct phrase is I do not believe.

Is the correct phrase reason to believe that or reason to belive that?

The correct phrase is reason to believe that.

Which is correct I believe in or I belive in?

The correct phrase is I believe in.

Is it believe me or belive me?

The correct phrase is believe me.

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The definitions in this article were adapted from Wiktionary and Your Dictionary.