brim
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "brim", 4-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 "brim" 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 "brim" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
brim is aEnglishnoun. It means: Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge. Pronounced /bɹɪm/. Often confused with bro and bum.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brim |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɹɪm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26,705 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brim is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɹɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,705 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 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 brim, with forms such as "bbrim", "birm", and "brimm". 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, "bro", "bum", "bru", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English brem, brim, brimme (“bank, edge, or margin of a lake or river; shore of a sea; brink; rim”); from Old English brim (“sea, surf, or the edge of the sea or a body of water”), from Proto-Germanic *brimą (“turbulence, sur… 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 brim, spelled B-R-I-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 2Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 3Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 4Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 5Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 6Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
- 7Originally, a border or edge of a sea, a river, or other body of water; now, any border or edge.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English brem, brim, brimme (“bank, edge, or margin of a lake or river; shore of a sea; brink; rim”); from Old English brim (“sea, surf, or the edge of the sea or a body of water”), from Proto-Germanic *brimą (“turbulence, surge; surf, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *bremaną (“to roar”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem- (“to hum, make a noise”). The verb is derived from the noun. cognates * Bavarian Bräm (“border, stripe”) * Danish bræmme (“border, edge, brim”) * German Bräme, Brame (“border, edge”) * Swedish bräm (“border, edge”) * Icelandic barmur (“edge, verge, brink”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbrim,birm,brimm,brmi,brrim,rbim
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for brim
Misspelling Variants of "brim"
Frequency rank: #26,705 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: