biasvsbrayWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“bias” and “bray” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,472
“bias” frequency rank
#27,349
“bray” frequency rank
72821
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bias bray
Definition Préjugé, parti pris. Braiment d’un âne.

Where the eye mixes bias and bray

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bias
4 ch
bray

Look-alike desk: bias vs bray

A purely visual mix-up. bias (\ˈbaɪ.əs\) and bray (\breɪ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bias is recorded at frequency rank #45,472, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈbaɪ.əs\. bray is at rank #27,349, tagged as anoun, pronounced \breɪ\.

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 72821, this pair ranks #42,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bias vs bray

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bias": is. Private to "bray": ry.

"bias" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "bray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • biasbais · bbias · biass · bisa · ibas
  • braybbray · brayy · brray · brya · rbay

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bias" and "bray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈbaɪ.əs\ versus \breɪ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bias" vs "bray" - which ranks higher?
"bray" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,349 in our French list, against #45,472 for "bias". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bias" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bias" and "bray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bias vs bihan". 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 #42,653 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list