bodvsbraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,073
“bod” frequency rank
#8,898
“bra” frequency rank
35971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bod bra
Definition The body. An item of clothing, usually underwear worn to support the breasts.

Where the eye mixes bod and bra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
bod
3 ch
bra

Visual trap between bod and bra

A purely visual mix-up. bod (/bɒd/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bod is recorded at frequency rank #27,073, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɒd/. 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 35971, this pair ranks #307,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bod vs bra

Shared letters: b. Private to "bod": do. Private to "bra": ar.

"bod" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bod" for "bra" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɒd/ versus /bɹɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "bod" or "bra" show up more?
"bra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,898 in our English list, against #27,073 for "bod". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bod" 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 #307,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bod" and "bra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BFS vs bod". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #307,335 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