breaksvsbreastsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,213
“breaks” frequency rank
#7,774
“breasts” frequency rank
10987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breaks breasts
Definition plural of break plural of breast

Where the eye mixes breaks and breasts

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

6 ch
breaks
7 ch
breasts

Look-alike desk: breaks vs breasts

A purely visual mix-up. breaks (/bɹeɪks/) and breasts (/bɹɛsts/) 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 10987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breaks is recorded at frequency rank #3,213, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɹeɪks/. breasts is at rank #7,774, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹɛsts/.

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 10987, this pair ranks #489,466 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breaks vs breasts

Shared letters: abers. Private to "breaks": k. Private to "breasts": t.

"breaks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "breasts" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breaksbbreaks · beraks · braeks · breakks · breakss · breask · brekas · brreaks
  • breastsbbreasts · berasts · braests · breassts · breastss · breastts · breatss · bresats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "breaks" and "breasts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bɹeɪks/ versus /bɹɛsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "breaks" vs "breasts" - which ranks higher?
"breaks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,213 in our English list, against #7,774 for "breasts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "breaks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breasts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #489,466 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breaks" and "breasts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bests vs breasts". 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 #489,466 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