Which to use
“bane” and “bar” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,740
- “bane” frequency rank
- #1,901
- “bar” frequency rank
- 49641
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bane | bar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Hotte pour les vendanges. | Comptoir où se servent les boissons. |
Where the eye mixes bane and bar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bane vs bar
A purely visual mix-up. bane (\ban\) and bar (\baʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bane is recorded at frequency rank #47,740, classified as anoun, pronounced \ban\. bar is at rank #1,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \baʁ\.
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 49641, this pair ranks #168,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bane vs bar
Shared letters: ab. Private to "bane": en. Private to "bar": r.
"bane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bar" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bane ← abne · banne · bbane · bnae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bane" for "bar" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bane" or "bar"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bane" and "bar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #168,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bane" and "bar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bafa vs bane". 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 #168,996 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.