bir

\ˈbir\

/\ˈbir\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bir” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #37,689) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#37,689
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fils.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bir · bir · French

bir · rank #37,689 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #37,689
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bioéthique

Nearest frequency peer: bioéthique (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bir »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bir » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bir vs by
33% similar
bir vs bu
33% similar
bir vs Br
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bir
PropertyValue
Headwordbir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈbir\
Letters3
Frequency rank#37,689
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bir »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.birse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bioéthique » (#37,688), « blanchisserie » (#37,690), « bimbo » (#37,687). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bir » est au #37,689. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bir is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "bu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ˈbir\. Frequency #37,689 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Gloss: "Fils.".

bir doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "bu", "Br", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bir, spelled B-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fils.

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bir"?
"bir" is spelled B-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈbir\.
What does "bir" mean?
As a noun, "bir" means: Fils.
What words are commonly confused with "bir"?
"bir" is commonly confused with "by", "bu", "Br". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bir" is \ˈbir\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bir" come from?
"bir" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

amo#37,649Aff#37,637DSM#37,767UBS#37,593

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list