Which to use
“back” and “bare” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #93
- “back” frequency rank
- #5,293
- “bare” frequency rank
- 5386
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | back | bare |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | At or near the rear. | Minimal; that is or are just sufficient. |
Where the eye mixes back and bare
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. back (/bæk/) and bare (/bɛə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
back is recorded at frequency rank #93, classified as anadj, pronounced /bæk/. bare is at rank #5,293, tagged as anadj, pronounced /bɛə/.
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 5386, this pair ranks #515,535 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of back vs bare
Shared letters: ab. Private to "back": ck. Private to "bare": er.
"back" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV