Which to use
“bard” and “bra” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,490
- “bard” frequency rank
- #8,898
- “bra” frequency rank
- 27388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bard | bra |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A professional poet and singer, like among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men. | An item of clothing, usually underwear worn to support the breasts. |
Where the eye mixes bard and bra
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bard with bra
A purely visual mix-up. bard (/bɑːd/) and bra (/bɹɑː/) 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 27388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bard is recorded at frequency rank #18,490, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɑːd/. bra is at rank #8,898, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹɑː/.
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 27388, this pair ranks #379,322 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bard vs bra
Shared letters: abr. Private to "bard": d. Private to "bra": -.
"bard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bard ← abrd · badr · bardd · barrd · bbard
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bard" for "bra" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bard" or "bra" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "bard" and "bra" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bard" 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 #379,322 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bard" and "bra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bandy vs bard". 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 #379,322 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.