Which to use
“brain” and “bray” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,989
- “brain” frequency rank
- #27,349
- “bray” frequency rank
- 54338
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brain | bray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cerveau, cervelle. | Braiment d’un âne. |
Where the eye mixes brain and bray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between brain and bray
A purely visual mix-up. brain (\ˈbreɪn\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brain is recorded at frequency rank #26,989, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈbreɪn\. 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 54338, this pair ranks #134,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of brain vs bray
Shared letters: abr. Private to "brain": in. Private to "bray": y.
"brain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "bray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "brain" and "bray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "brain" or "bray"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "brain" and "bray" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "brain" 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 #134,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brain" and "bray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bray 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 #134,708 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.