Which to use
“breaker” and “breaks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,925
- “breaker” frequency rank
- #3,213
- “breaks” frequency rank
- 16138
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | breaker | breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Something that breaks (something else). | plural of break |
Where the eye mixes breaker and breaks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between breaker and breaks
A purely visual mix-up. breaker (/ˈbɹeɪkə/) and breaks (/bɹeɪks/) 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 16138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
breaker is recorded at frequency rank #12,925, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɹeɪkə/. breaks is at rank #3,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹeɪks/.
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 16138, this pair ranks #459,654 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of breaker vs breaks
Shared letters: abekr. Private to "breaker": -. Private to "breaks": s.
"breaker" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "breaks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "breaker" and "breaks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "breaker" or "breaks" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "breaker" and "breaks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "breaker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "breaks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #459,654 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "breaker" and "breaks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beamer vs breaker". 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 #459,654 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.