brinvsbrinkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,351
“brin” frequency rank
#14,709
“brink” frequency rank
61060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brin brink
Definition One of the radiating sticks of a fan. The outermost are larger and longer, and are called panaches. The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge.

Where the eye mixes brin and brink

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
brin
5 ch
brink

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. brin (/ˈbɹɪn/) and brink (/bɹɪŋk/) 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 extra letter(s) - “brin” sits inside “brink”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brin is recorded at frequency rank #46,351, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɹɪn/. brink is at rank #14,709, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹɪŋk/.

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 61060, this pair ranks #96,531 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brin vs brink

Shared letters: binr. Private to "brin": -. Private to "brink": k.

"brin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "brink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brinbbrin · birn · brinn · brni · brrin · rbin
  • brinkbbrink · birnk · brikn · brinkk · brinnk · brnik · brrink · rbink

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brin" and "brink" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɹɪn/ versus /bɹɪŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brin" or "brink"?
"brink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,709 in our English list, against #46,351 for "brin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "brin" and "brink". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,531 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brin" and "brink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BFI 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list