Which to use
“brow” and “burrow” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,874
- “brow” frequency rank
- #25,305
- “burrow” frequency rank
- 39179
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brow | burrow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located. | A tunnel or hole, often as dug by a small creature. |
Where the eye mixes brow and burrow
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. brow runs 4 letters (CCVC) against burrow's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between brow and burrow
A purely visual mix-up. brow (/bɹaʊ/) and burrow (/ˈbʌɹəʊ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brow is recorded at frequency rank #13,874, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɹaʊ/. burrow is at rank #25,305, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʌɹəʊ/.
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 39179, this pair ranks #279,118 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of brow vs burrow
Shared letters: borw. Private to "brow": -. Private to "burrow": u.
"brow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "burrow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "brow" for "burrow" ever safe?
Which is more common, "brow" or "burrow"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "brow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "burrow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #279,118 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brow" and "burrow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Burgos vs burrow". 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 #279,118 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.