bisvsBRTell them apart

Quick tell: bis is a preposition, BR is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bis” is a preposition and “BR” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,300
“bis” frequency rank
#2,004
“BR” frequency rank
16304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bis BR
Definition até rodovia de competência federal, da União

Letter map: bis vs BR

Shared letters muted; letters that set bis and BR apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
bis
2 ch
BR

Role in the sentence - bis and BR

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bis is apreposition and BRanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bis is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as aprep. BR is at rank #2,004, tagged as anoun.

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 16304, this pair ranks #55,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bis vs BR

Shared letters: b. Private to "bis": is. Private to "BR": r.

"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "BR" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bis" for "BR" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bis" is a preposition and "BR" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bis" or "BR" show up more?
"BR" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,004 in our Portuguese list, against #14,300 for "bis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "bis" and "BR". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "BR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bis" and "BR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list