baringvsbrakingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“baring” and “braking” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,927
“baring” frequency rank
#17,090
“braking” frequency rank
47017
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baring braking
Definition present participle and gerund of bare present participle and gerund of brake

Where the eye mixes baring and braking

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
baring
7 ch
braking

Visual trap between baring and braking

A purely visual mix-up. baring (/ˈbɛə.ɹɪŋ/) and braking (/ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/) 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 47017, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baring is recorded at frequency rank #29,927, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɛə.ɹɪŋ/. braking is at rank #17,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/.

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 47017, this pair ranks #206,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baring vs braking

Shared letters: abginr. Private to "baring": -. Private to "braking": k.

"baring" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "braking" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baringabring · bairng · barign · baringg · barinng · barnig · bbaring · braing
  • brakingbbraking · braikng · brakign · brakingg · brakinng · brakking · braknig · brkaing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "baring" for "braking" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɛə.ɹɪŋ/ versus /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "baring" or "braking" show up more?
"braking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,090 in our English list, against #29,927 for "baring". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "baring" and "braking" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "baring" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "braking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baring" and "braking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baring vs brin". 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 #206,336 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list