brake
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "brake", 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 "brake" 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 "brake" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
brake is aEnglishnoun. It means: A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); al... Pronounced /bɹeɪk/. It ranks #7,655 in English word frequency. Often confused with brat and bray.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɹeɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,655 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brake is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɹeɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,655 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for brake, with forms such as "barke", "bbrake", and "brakke". 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, "brat", "bray", "bran", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”). 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 brake, spelled B-R-A-K-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
- 2A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
- 3A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
- 4A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
- 5An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
- 6An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
- 7The handle of a pump.
- 8A baker’s kneading trough.
- 9A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
- 10A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
- 11A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
- 12A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
- 13That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
Etymology
Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: barke,bbrake,brakke,brkae,brrake,rbake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for brake
Misspelling Variants of "brake"
Frequency rank: #7,655 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: