brève
\bʁɛv\
The verdict
“brève” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #8,347 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,347
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Syllabes, voyelles qu’on prononce rapidement.
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 | brève |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bʁɛv\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #8,347 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “brève” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for brève is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bʁɛv\. Corpus data places it at rank #8,347 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Syllabes, voyelles qu’on prononce rapidement.
- 2Signe diacritique des alphabets latin et cyrillique qui marque cette prononciation rapide : ◌̆, ou avec chasse : ˘.
- 3Nom donné à plusieurs espèces de passereaux des forêts tropicales de l’Ancien Monde, à queue très courte, formant la famille des pittidés.
- 4Information par définition courte.
- 5Version abrégée d'un acte rédigée en présence des parties par le notaire qui s’est déplacé
- 6Figure de note dont la valeur est égale à la moitié d’une longue ou deux semi-brèves. Équivalent à la carrée moderne.
- 7Produit d’une seule fonte.
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "brève" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "brève"?
How do you pronounce "brève"?
What language does "brève" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “brève”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-R-È-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bʁɛv\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brie” - see the side-by-side comparison. brève vs brie
- 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.