bare
/bɛɹ/adjective, adverb, noun, verb
bare is spelled B-A-R-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “bare vs bear” about 9,900 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, bare means “Minimal; that is or are just sufficient” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bare?
| Letters | 4: B-A-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is bare?
Bare appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce bare?
- UK /bɛə/
- UK /bɛː/
- US /bɛɹ/
Bare has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bear.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bare
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bear (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with bare?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bare from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: bear, brae, rabe.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of bare
- barer comparative
- barest superlative
- bares plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- baring participle, present
- bared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bare mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Minimal; that is or are just sufficient.
a bare majority
- 2
Naked, uncovered.
- 3
Having no supplies.
a room bare of furniture
- 4
Having no decoration.
The walls of this room are bare – why not hang some paintings on them?
- 5
Having had what usually covers (something) removed.
The trees were left bare after the swarm of locusts devoured all the leaves.
- 6
slangA lot or lots of.
It's taking bare time.
- 7
With head uncovered; bareheaded.
- 8
Without anything to cover up or conceal one's thoughts or actions; open to view; exposed.
adverb
- 1
Barely.
- 2
slangVery; significantly.
That pissed me off bare.
- 3
slangWithout a condom.
noun
- 1
The surface, the (bare) skin.
- 2
Surface; body; substance.
- 3
That part of a roofing slate, shingle, tile, or metal plate, which is exposed to the weather.
verb
- 1
To uncover; to reveal.
She bared her teeth at him.
noun
- 1
An indigenous people of northwest Brazil and Venezuela.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | minimal , nu, nue |
| Spanish | mínimo , desnudo , morondo, moroncho , descubrir |
| German | bar, nackt |
| Portuguese | nu , no pelo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does bare come from?
From Middle English bare, bar, from Old English bær (“bare, naked, open”), from Proto-West Germanic *baʀ, from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare, naked”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós, from *bʰos- (“bare, barefoot”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).