brève

\bʁɛv\

/\bʁɛv\/ noun

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

The verdict

“brève” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,347. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,347
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Syllabes, voyelles qu’on prononce rapidement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-breve · brève · French

brève · rank #8,347 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,347
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bonbons

Nearest frequency peer: bonbons (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « brève »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « brève » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

brève vs brie
60% similar
brève vs buée
40% similar
brève vs Brise
40% similar

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

Key facts for brève
PropertyValue
Headwordbrève
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bʁɛv\
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,347
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « brève »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).brèvese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bonbons » (#8,346), « Burkina » (#8,348), « cadavres » (#8,349). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « brève » est au #8,347. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around brève (IPA \bʁɛv\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,347 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for brève, with forms such as "bbrève", "breve", and "brrève". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "brie", "buée", "Brise", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is brève, spelled B-R-È-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Syllabes, voyelles qu’on prononce rapidement.
  2. 2
    Signe diacritique des alphabets latin et cyrillique qui marque cette prononciation rapide : ◌̆, ou avec chasse : ˘.
  3. 3
    Nom donné à plusieurs espèces de passereaux des forêts tropicales de l’Ancien Monde, à queue très courte, formant la famille des pittidés.
  4. 4
    Information par définition courte.
  5. 5
    Version abrégée d'un acte rédigée en présence des parties par le notaire qui s’est déplacé
  6. 6
    Figure de note dont la valeur est égale à la moitié d’une longue ou deux semi-brèves. Équivalent à la carrée moderne.
  7. 7
    Produit d’une seule fonte.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how brève appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. En grec ancien et en latin, les brèves et les longues sont distinctes.
  2. L’ïambe est composé d’une brève et d’une longue.

Antonyms

longuemacron

This word in other languages

breve(English)pita(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbrève
  • breve
  • brrève
  • brvèe
  • brèev
  • brèvve
  • bèrve
  • rbève

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brève - 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.

bbrève1breve1brrève1brvèe2brèev2brèvve1bèrve2rbève2
Edit distance from "brève"

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 "brève"?
"brève" is spelled B-R-È-V-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bʁɛv\.
What does "brève" mean?
As a noun, "brève" means: Syllabes, voyelles qu’on prononce rapidement.
What words are commonly confused with "brève"?
"brève" is commonly confused with "brie", "buée", "Brise". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "brève"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "brève" is \bʁɛv\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "brève" come from?
"brève" 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 "brève", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

chêne#8,356chœur#8,357cross#8,369Dakar#8,371

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

chauve8 variantsallumer8 variantsconvoi8 variantscopier8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list