bravsbrisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,814
“bra” frequency rank
#21,875
“bris” frequency rank
65689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bra bris
Definition Soutien-gorge. Rupture faite, le plus souvent avec violence, d’un scellé, d’une porte fermée, d’une clôture.

Where the eye mixes bra and bris

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

3 ch
bra
4 ch
bris

Look-alike desk: bra vs bris

A purely visual mix-up. bra (\ˈbɹɑ\) and bris (\bʁi\) 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 65689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bra is recorded at frequency rank #43,814, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈbɹɑ\. bris is at rank #21,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁi\.

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 65689, this pair ranks #71,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bra vs bris

Shared letters: br. Private to "bra": a. Private to "bris": is.

"bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "bris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brisbbris · birs · briss · brris · brsi · rbis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bra" and "bris" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈbɹɑ\ versus \bʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bra" vs "bris" - which ranks higher?
"bris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,875 in our French list, against #43,814 for "bra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bra" and "bris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bra vs bury". 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 #71,186 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