bluvsbraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: blu is a adjective, bra is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blu” is an adjective and “bra” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,037
“blu” frequency rank
#38,655
“bra” frequency rank
50692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blu bra
Definition blau paariger Körperteil zwischen Rumpf und Hand; Arm

Where the eye mixes blu and bra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. blu and bra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
blu
3 ch
bra

Visual trap between blu and bra

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blu is [blu] while bra is [bɣa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blu is recorded at frequency rank #12,037, classified as anadj, pronounced [blu]. bra is at rank #38,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɣa].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 50692, this pair ranks #1,164,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blu vs bra

Shared letters: b. Private to "blu": lu. Private to "bra": ar.

"blu" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blu" and "bra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blu" is an adjective and "bra" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "blu" or "bra" show up more?
"blu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,037 in our German list, against #38,655 for "bra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,164,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blu" and "bra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bic vs bra". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,164,124 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list