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PlainSpell

bream

/bɹɪm/noun, verb

bream is spelled B-R-E-A-M: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “bream vs brim” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, bream means “A European fresh-water cyprinoid fish of the genus Abramis, little valued as food. Several species are known” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bream is breams.

How many letters and syllables are in bream?

Letters5: B-R-E-A-M
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 42,145th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bream?

Bream appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bream?

  • UK /bɹiːm/
  • US /bɹɪm/
  • US /bɹim/

Bream has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bream.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bream

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

bream vs brim30 G

Sounds like: brim (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: broom.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with bream?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bream from its last stressed vowel (/ɪm/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: amber, brame, embar.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bream

  • breams plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • breaming participle, present
  • breamed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bream mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A European fresh-water cyprinoid fish of the genus Abramis, little valued as food. Several species are known.

  2. 2

    UKA species in that genus, Abramis brama.

  3. 3

    An American fresh-water fish, of various species of Lepomis and allied genera, which are also called sunfishes and pondfishes.

  4. 4

    A marine sparoid fish of the genus Pagellus, and allied genera.

verb

  1. 1

    To clean (e.g. a ship's bottom of clinging shells, seaweed, etc.) by the application of fire and scraping.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bream in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbrème (fish of the genus Abramis), brème commune (Abramis brama), pageot (marine sparoid fish of the genus Pagellus, and…)
GermanBrasse, Brachse (fish of the genus Abramis), Brachsen, Blei (Abramis brama)
Portuguesebrema (fish of the genus Abramis), brema-do-mar (Abramis brama), esparídeo (marine sparoid fish of the genus Pagellus, and…), mudfish (American freshwater fish, of various species of…)
Spanishbrema, besugo (fish of the genus Abramis), plática (Abramis brama)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bream come from?

From Middle English breme, from Old French breme, bresme, braisme, brasme (whence French brème), from Frankish *brahsma, *brahsima (whence Dutch brasem), from Proto-West Germanic *brahsmō (whence Old High German brahsma, brahsmo, brahsina, brehsina (whence German Brasse, Brachse (“bream”))), from Proto-Germanic *brahsmô, *brahsinō, *brahsmaz (“bream”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *brehwanaz (“shining, glittery, sparkly”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerek- (“to shine”) (see braid (verb)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bream