brother
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "brother", 7-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 "brother" 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 "brother" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
brother is aEnglishnoun. It means: Son of the same parents as another person. Pronounced /ˈbɹʌðə/. It ranks #801 in English word frequency. Often confused with browser and brothers.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brother |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɹʌðə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #801 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brother is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɹʌðə/. Corpus data places it at rank #801 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for brother, with forms such as "bbrother", "borther", and "brohter". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "browser", "brothers", "brotherly", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr Inherited from Middle English broder, brodir, brother, brothir, broþer, broðer, from Old English brōþor, brōþur, brōðer, brōður, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr (“brother”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂… 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 brother, spelled B-R-O-T-H-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Son of the same parents as another person.
- 2A male having at least one parent in common with another person (see half-brother, stepbrother).
- 3A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
- 4A form of address to a man.
- 5A fellow black man.
- 6Somebody, usually male, connected by a common cause, situation, or affection.
- 7Someone who is a peer, whether male or female.
- 8Someone who is a kinsman or shares the same patriarch.
Etymology
PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr Inherited from Middle English broder, brodir, brother, brothir, broþer, broðer, from Old English brōþor, brōþur, brōðer, brōður, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr (“brother”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”). Doublet of bhai, bru, frater, friar, pal, and vai. Cognates Cognate with Scots breeder, bridder, brither, broder, brother, bruther (“brother”), Yola brover, brower (“brother”), North Frisian brouder, bruler, Bröđer (“brother”), Saterland Frisian Brour, Brúur (“brother”), West Frisian broer (“brother”), Alemannic German briöder, bruder, brueder, bröder, Brüeder, Brüädär (“brother”), Bavarian pruadar, prueder, pruider (“brother”), Central Franconian Broder (“brother”), Cimbrian pruadar, pruudar (“brother”), Dutch broeder, broer (“brother”), German Bruder (“brother”), German Low German Broor (“brother”), Limburgish broor, Broër (“brother”), Luxembourgish Brudder (“brother; monk”), Mòcheno pruader (“brother”), Vilamovian brüder (“brother”), Yiddish ברודער (bruder, “brother”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish broder, bror (“brother”), Elfdalian bruoðer (“brother”), Faroese and Icelandic bróðir (“brother”), Crimean Gothic bruder (“brother”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐍉𐌸𐌰𐍂 (brōþar, “brother”); also Breton breur (“brother”), Cornish broder (“brother”), Irish bráthair (“brother”), Manx braar (“brother; friar, monk”), Scottish Gaelic bràthair (“brother”), Welsh brawd (“brother”), Latin frāter (“brother; sibling”), Ancient Greek βρά (brá, “brother”), φρᾱ́τηρ (phrā́tēr, “brother, citizen, clansman, kinsman”), Phrygian βρατερε (bratere, “brother”), Lydian 𐤡𐤭𐤠𐤱𐤭𐤳𐤦𐤳 (prafršiš, “brother”), Latgalian bruoļs (“brother”), Latvian brālis (“brother”), Lithuanian brólis (“brother”), Old Prussian brāti, brote (“brother”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian брат (brat, “brother”), Czech bratr (“brother”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene brat (“brother”), Serbo-Croatian бра̏т, brȁt (“brother; buddy, mate”), Armenian ապեր (aper), ախպար (axpar), ախպեր (axper), եղբայր (eġbayr, “brother; buddy”), Baluchi برات (barát, “brother”), Central Kurdish and Southern Kurdish برا (bra, “brother”), Northern Kurdish bira (“as a brother”), Ossetian ӕрвад (ærvad), ӕрвадӕ (ærvadæ, “brother”), Pashto ورور (wror, “brother”), Persian برادر (barādar, birādar / barâdar), برار (birār / berâr), وردار (vardâr, “brother; comrade; dude”), Ashkun břa (“younger brother”), Kamkata-viri břo (“brother”), Tregami brā (“brother”), Waigali brā, břā (“brother”), Tocharian A pracar (“brother”), Tocharian B procer (“brother”), Sanskrit भ्रातृ (bhrātṛ, “brother; friend”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbrother,borther,brohter,brotehr,brotherr,brothher,brothre,brotther,brrother,brtoher,rbother
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for brother
Misspelling Variants of "brother"
Frequency rank: #801 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: