blare

/blɛə/

//blɛə// verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"blare" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“blare” is uncommon English (frequency #59,905 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,905
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To play (a radio, recorded music, etc.) at extremely loud volume levels.

Corpus desk

Index EN-blare · blare · English

blare · rank #59,905 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,905
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bluefin

Nearest frequency peer: bluefin (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “blare”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “blare” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for blare
PropertyValue
Headwordblare
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/blɛə/
Letters5
Frequency rank#59,905
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “blare” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).blarefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “bluefin” (#59,906), “Binks” (#59,903), “Billingsley” (#59,902). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “blare” is #59,905. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

blare is uncommon English at frequency #59,905 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /blɛə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for blare in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣran, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative. Related to Middle Du… The correct English form is blare, spelled B-L-A-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To play (a radio, recorded music, etc.) at extremely loud volume levels.
  2. 2
    To express (ideas, words, etc.) loudly; to proclaim.
  3. 3
    To make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet.
  4. 4
    To make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how blare appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In 2000, a robber held up a bank in San Diego, USA. It seems everyone held their noses rather than sticking their hands up because the man was so smelly! […] Police helicopters blared loudspeaker warnings about the smelly man.
  2. [T]he world, the world, / All ear and eye, with such a stupid heart / To interpret ear and eye, and such a tongue / To blare its own interpretation— […]

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣran, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative. Related to Middle Dutch blaren, bleren (“to bawl, cry; to shout; to bleat”) (modern Dutch blèren). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates German Low German blaren, blarren Middle High German blêren, blerren (modern German plärren) Saterland Frisian blärje West Frisian blearje

This word in other languages

resonar(Español)brailler(Français)plärren(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "blare"?
"blare" is spelled B-L-A-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /blɛə/.
What does "blare" mean?
As a verb, "blare" means: To play (a radio, recorded music, etc.) at extremely loud volume levels.
How do you pronounce "blare"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "blare" is /blɛə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "blare"?
The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣran, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative. Related to... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "blare", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Binks#59,903biddy#59,900beget#59,888baste#59,881

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list