brace
/bɹeɪs/
"brace" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“brace” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,820 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,820
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Armor for the arm; vambrace.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brace |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɹeɪs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #10,820 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “brace” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brace is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɹeɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,820 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for brace, with forms such as "barce", "bbrace", and "bracce". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "brad", "brag", "brat", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English brace, from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, the nominative and accusative plural of bracchium (“arm”). The correct English form is brace, spelled B-R-A-C-E.
Definition
- 1Armor for the arm; vambrace.
- 2A measurement of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms.
- 3A curved instrument or handle of iron or wood, for holding and turning bits, etc.; a bitstock.
- 4That which holds anything tightly or supports it firmly; a bandage or a prop.
- 5A cord, ligament, or rod, for producing or maintaining tension.
- 6A thong used to regulate the tension of a drum.
- 7The state of being braced or tight; tension.
- 8Harness; warlike preparation.
- 9A curved, pointed line, also known as "curly bracket": { or } connecting two or more words or lines, which are to be considered together, such as in {role, roll}; in music, used to connect staves.
- 10A pair, a couple; originally used of dogs, and later of animals generally (e.g., a brace of conies) and then other things, but rarely human persons. (In British use (as plural), this is a particularly common reference to game birds.)
- 11A piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts. It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members. A boiler brace is a diagonal stay, connecting the head with the shell.
- 12A rope reeved through a block at the end of a yard, by which the yard is moved horizontally; also, a rudder gudgeon.
- 13The mouth of a shaft.
- 14Straps or bands to sustain trousers; suspenders.
- 15A system of wires, brackets, and elastic bands used to correct crooked teeth or to reduce overbite.
- 16Two goals scored by one player in a game.
- 17Two wickets taken with two consecutive deliveries.
Etymology
From Middle English brace, from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, the nominative and accusative plural of bracchium (“arm”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: barce,bbrace,bracce,braec,brcae,brrace,rbace
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brace - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
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Using “brace”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-A-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɹeɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brad” - see the side-by-side comparison. brace vs brad
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.