Which to use
“bane” and “bar” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,563
- “bane” frequency rank
- #1,213
- “bar” frequency rank
- 21776
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bane | bar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A cause of misery or ruin. | A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length. |
Where the eye mixes bane and bar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bane vs bar
A purely visual mix-up. bane (/beɪn/) and bar (/bɑː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bane is recorded at frequency rank #20,563, classified as anoun, pronounced /beɪn/. bar is at rank #1,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɑː/.
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 21776, this pair ranks #421,431 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bane vs bar
Shared letters: ab. Private to "bane": en. Private to "bar": r.
"bane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bar" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bane ← abne · banne · bbane · bnae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bane" for "bar" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bane" or "bar"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bane" and "bar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,431 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bane" and "bar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bandy vs bane". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #421,431 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.