Bras

How to spell bras

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bras

What does bras mean?

1. nounMore than one bra: undergarments worn to support the breasts.

Bras in a sentence

• She sorted her bras into a separate drawer.

• The shop sells matching bras and briefs in every size.

Where does bras come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural of 'bra', which is itself a clipped form of 'brassiere', a word English adopted from French in the early twentieth century. The French brassiere originally meant a child's vest or a kind of bodice, and it traces back to the Old French braciere, a guard worn on the arm, built on bras, the French word for 'arm', which descends from the Latin bracchium meaning 'arm'. The garment sense narrowed in English to the modern undergarment supporting the breasts, and by the 1930s the snappy short form 'bra' had taken over in everyday speech. The plural simply adds -s, but the spelling traps writers because the single syllable sounds as though it might double the consonant or end differently. Knowing that the root is the French word for 'arm' is a quiet reminder that the word, despite its modern look, is genuinely French in origin.

How the word is built

• bra (shortening of brassiere)
• -s (plural)