brach

/bɹæt͡ʃ/

//bɹæt͡ʃ// noun

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

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

The verdict

“brach” is uncommon English (frequency #89,179 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,179
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.

Corpus desk

Index EN-brach · brach · English

brach · rank #89,179 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,179
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH Boyko

Nearest frequency peer: Boyko (-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 “brach”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for brach
PropertyValue
Headwordbrach
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/bɹæt͡ʃ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#89,179
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “brach” 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).brachfalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Boyko” (#89,178), “brachytherapy” (#89,180), “Boudreaux” (#89,176). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “brach” is #89,179. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

brach is uncommon English at frequency #89,179 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bɹæt͡ʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

brach doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”), probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, from Old High… The correct English form is brach, spelled B-R-A-C-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.
  2. 2
    A despicable or disagreeable woman; a bitch.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. In ſome countreys no woman is ſo honourable as she that hath to doo with moſt men, and can give the luſtieſt ſtriker oddes by 25 times in one night, as Meſſalina did; and ſo it is with this his bratche, or bitch-foxe.
  2. Truth is a dog that muſt to kenell, hee muſt be vvhipt out, vvhen Ladie oth'e [or the] brach may ſtand by the fire and ſtinke.

Etymology

From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”), probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, from Old High German braccho, bracco, bracko (“scent hound”) (modern German Bracke); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Germanic *brēkijaną (compare Latin fragrō (“to emit a smell”), Middle High German bræhen (“to smell (something); to use the sense of smell; to have a (bad) smell”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (“to have a strong odour, to smell”). cognates * Italian bracco * Medieval Latin bracco * Occitan brac * Spanish braco

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 "brach"?
"brach" is spelled B-R-A-C-H. The IPA pronunciation is /bɹæt͡ʃ/.
What does "brach" mean?
As a noun, "brach" means: Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.
How do you pronounce "brach"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "brach" is /bɹæt͡ʃ/. 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 "brach"?
From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”), probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, fro... 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 "brach", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Boyko#89,178Bomer#89,173Bicol#89,158Ayoub#89,128

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list