bras
\bʁa\
The verdict
“bras” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #785 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #785
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Partie du membre supérieur des humains (et des bipèdes en général) qui s’étend depuis l’épaule (qui la relie au tronc) jusqu’au coude (qui la relie à l’avant-bras).
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 | bras |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bʁa\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #785 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bras” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for bras is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bʁa\. Corpus data places it at rank #785 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bras, with forms such as "bbras", "brras", and "brsa". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BS", "bus", "BTS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is bras, spelled B-R-A-S.
Definition
- 1Partie du membre supérieur des humains (et des bipèdes en général) qui s’étend depuis l’épaule (qui la relie au tronc) jusqu’au coude (qui la relie à l’avant-bras).
- 2Membre supérieur des humains et autres bipèdes.
- 3Objet qui ressemble ou qui tient le bras.
- 4Brimbale.
- 5Personne pour accomplir une tâche manuelle.
- 6(Suivi d'un adjectif ou d'un complément de nom caractérisant la nature du pouvoir en cause) Instrument (d'une entité plus grande) jouant un rôle concret dans un domaine particulier.
- 7Subdivision latérale d’un fleuve ou d’une rivière qu’une île sépare de son cours principal.
- 8Ramification s’écartant du tronc d’un arbre en espalier ou d’un cep de vigne.
- 9Cordage situé au vent qui permet de régler l’écartement d’une voile d’avant.
- 10Meuble représentant un bras tendu ou simplement un avant-bras et une main dans les armoiries. Il est utilisé lorsqu’il n’est pas nécessaire de préciser si on a affaire à un bras droit ou gauche. À rapprocher de dextrochère, main et senestrochère ou sénestrochère.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbras,brras,brsa,rbas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bras - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
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Using “bras”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-R-A-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bʁa\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “BS” - see the side-by-side comparison. bras vs BS
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.