brow
/bɹaʊ/
"brow" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“brow” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #13,874. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #13,874
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located.
Corpus desk
Index EN-brow · brow · English
brow · rank #13,874 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,874
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH brightest
Nearest frequency peer: brightest (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “brow”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- bowel
bowel
86,129 corpus weight
- brightest
brightest
86,128 corpus weight
- brow
brow
86,127 corpus weight
- Budapest
Budapest
86,126 corpus weight
- bulbs
bulbs
86,125 corpus weight
- bureaucracy
bureaucracy
86,124 corpus weight
What this shows “brow” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɹaʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #13,874 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “brow”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around brow (IPA /bɹaʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #13,874 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for brow, with forms such as "bbrow", "borw", and "broww". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BW", "BTW", "bru", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”). Cognate with Scots broo (“brow”), Dutch brauw (“brow”), German Braue (“eyebrow”), Danish, Norwegian Ny… The correct English form is brow, spelled B-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located.
- 2The eyebrow.
- 3The forehead.
- 4Aspect; appearance; facial expression.
- 5The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.
- 6The first tine of an antler's beam.
- 7A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
- 8The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
- 9The hinged part of a landing craft or ferry which is lowered to form a landing platform; a ramp.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how brow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
’Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, / Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream / That can entame my spirits to your worship.
And his arch’d brow, pulled o’er his eyes, / With solemn proof proclaims him wise.
Etymology
From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”). Cognate with Scots broo (“brow”), Dutch brauw (“brow”), German Braue (“eyebrow”), Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish bryn (“brow”), Faroese, Icelandic brún (“brow”). See also Middle Irish brúad, Tocharian B pärwāne (“eyebrows”), Lithuanian bruvi̇̀s, Serbo-Croatian obrva (“eyebrow”), Russian бровь (brovʹ, “brow”), Ancient Greek ὀφρύς (ophrús, “eyebrow”), Sanskrit भ्रू (bhrū, “eyebrow”)), Persian ابرو (abru, “eyebrow”), Khowar بروُ (bruú, “eyebrow”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbrow
- borw
- broww
- brrow
- brwo
- rbow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brow - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "brow", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).