Which to use
“brother” and “brothers” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #801
- “brother” frequency rank
- #2,065
- “brothers” frequency rank
- 2866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brother | brothers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Son of the same parents as another person. | plural of brother |
Where the eye mixes brother and brothers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. brother runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against brothers's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: brother vs brothers
A purely visual mix-up. brother (/ˈbɹʌðə/) and brothers (/ˈbɹʌðə(ɹ)z/) 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) - “brother” sits inside “brothers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brother is recorded at frequency rank #801, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɹʌðə/. brothers is at rank #2,065, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɹʌðə(ɹ)z/.
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 2866, this pair ranks #523,806 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brother vs brothers
Shared letters: behort. Private to "brother": -. Private to "brothers": s.
"brother" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "brothers" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "brother" and "brothers" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "brother" vs "brothers" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "brother" and "brothers" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "brother" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brothers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #523,806 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brother" and "brothers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bronzer vs brother". 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 #523,806 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.