Which to use
“bare” is an adjective and “bear” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,293
- “bare” frequency rank
- #1,985
- “bear” frequency rank
- 7278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bare | bear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Minimal; that is or are just sufficient. | A large, generally omnivorous mammal (a few species are purely carnivorous or herbivorous), having shaggy fur, a very small tail, and flat feet; a member of the family Ursidae. |
Same sound, different letters: bare vs bear
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bare and bear carry the same recorded pronunciation, /bɛə/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bare is recorded at frequency rank #5,293, classified as anadj, pronounced /bɛə/. bear is at rank #1,985, tagged as anoun, 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 7278, this pair ranks #507,811 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bare vs bear
Shared letters: aber. Private to "bare": -. Private to "bear": -.
"bare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC