breadvsbreedsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,981
“bread” frequency rank
#11,513
“breeds” frequency rank
14494
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bread breeds
Definition A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals. plural of breed

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set bread and breeds apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
bread
6 ch
breeds

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. bread (/brɛd/) and breeds (/bɹiːdz/) 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 14494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bread is recorded at frequency rank #2,981, classified as anoun, pronounced /brɛd/. breeds is at rank #11,513, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹiːdz/.

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 14494, this pair ranks #469,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bread vs breeds

Shared letters: bder. Private to "bread": a. Private to "breeds": s.

"bread" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "breeds" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breadbbread · berad · braed · breadd · breda · brread · rbead
  • breedsbbreeds · bereds · bredes · breds · breedds · breedss · breesd · brreeds

Frequency comparison

bread#2,981
breeds#11,513

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bread" and "breeds" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/brɛd/ versus /bɹiːdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bread" or "breeds"?
"bread" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,981 in our English list, against #11,513 for "breeds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering bread vs breeds

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “bread” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list