fra
/fɹɑː/
"fra" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fra” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #25,765) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #25,765
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A title of a friar or monk: brother.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fra · fra · English
fra · rank #25,765 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #25,765
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH foyer
Nearest frequency peer: foyer (-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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “fra”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- filament
filament
74,240 corpus weight
- Flemish
Flemish
74,238 corpus weight
- foyer
foyer
74,237 corpus weight
- fra
fra
74,236 corpus weight
- fresco
fresco
74,234 corpus weight
- frigate
frigate
74,233 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “fra” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | fra |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɹɑː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #25,765 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “fra”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for fra is neighbouring look-alikes ("fu", "FS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /fɹɑː/. Frequency #25,765 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Gloss: "A title of a friar or monk: brother.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for fra, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fu", "FS", "FW", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr From Italian frate. See friar. The correct English form is fra, spelled F-R-A.
Definition
- 1A title of a friar or monk: brother.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fra appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You have at Naples your Fra Bernardino; / And I at Fondi have my Fra Bastiano, / The famous artist, who has come from Rome / To paint my portrait.
The writer has spoken to his two companions, Fathers Eliseus and Elias, desiring them to go, if only to gather intelligence about those parts; but both are of one mind that the basis of operations, as laid down by Fra Simon, is not substantiated […]
Etymology
PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr From Italian frate. See friar.
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 "fra", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).