brace
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "brace", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "brace" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "brace" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
brace is aEnglishnoun. It means: Armor for the arm; vambrace. Pronounced /bɹeɪs/. Often confused with brad and brag.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brace is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for brace, with forms such as "barce", "bbrace", and "bracce". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is brace, spelled B-R-A-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for brace
Misspelling Variants of "brace"
Frequency rank: #10,820 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: