banvsbrainWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ban” and “brain” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,171
“ban” frequency rank
#34,913
“brain” frequency rank
46084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ban brain
Definition Unidad monetaria de Moldavia, centésima parte de un leu. Cerebro.

Where the eye mixes ban and brain

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ban
5 ch
brain

Visual trap between ban and brain

A purely visual mix-up. ban ([ˈbãn]) and brain (/bɹeɪn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ban is recorded at frequency rank #11,171, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbãn]. brain is at rank #34,913, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹeɪn/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 46084, this pair ranks #127,770 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ban vs brain

Shared letters: abn. Private to "ban": -. Private to "brain": ir.

"ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "brain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brainbarin · bbrain · brainn · brani · brian · brrain · rbain · vrain

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ban" and "brain" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbãn] versus /bɹeɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ban" vs "brain" - which ranks higher?
"ban" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,171 in our Spanish list, against #34,913 for "brain". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ban" and "brain" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,770 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ban" and "brain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brain vs brie". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #127,770 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list