Bare or Bear?

by Craig Shrives
The Quick Answer
What is the difference between bare and bear?

Bare means exposed (e.g., without clothes). For everything else, use bear.

Note: The term to bear fruit uses bear not bare. (This term is often mistakely written as to bare fruit.)
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Bear or Bare

There is often confusion over the words bear and bare. This confusion arises because, knowing a bear is a large mammal (e.g., a brown bear), writers feel uncomfortable using bear in its other meanings. In fact, the word bear is a very versatile word. Here are common expressions with bear:
  • Bear the cost
  • Bear the pain
  • Bear the brunt
  • Bear the burden
  • Bear the consequences
  • Bear the thought
  • Bear the weight
  • Bear the name
  • Bear fruit

Bear

The word bear has many meanings:

To carry (in many senses of the word).
  • We come bearing gifts for your chief.
  • Our camels do not mate regularly, but we are expecting Tsu Tsu to bear her first baby next season.
  • This small tree bears hundreds of apples every year.
  • Who will bear the responsibility for this vandalism?
  • My auntie is the tall lady bearing the green hat.
    • (Bear means to wear as opposed to carry in this example.)
  • He bears himself with utmost dignity.
    • (Bear can mean to carry in an even looser sense.)
  • You bear a resemblance to your mother.
  • Does this document bear your signature?
  • I bear bad news, I'm afraid.
To endure or to tolerate.
  • Mrs Taylor cannot bear the constant drone of the generator.
  • I have learnt to bear the cold.
  • It is very easy to endure the difficulties of one's enemies. It is the successes of one's friends that are hard to bear. (Oscar Wilde)
To maintain a direction.
  • Bear left at the next two Y junctions.
  • This track bears north for the next 10 miles and then bears east as far as the lake.
A large mammal.

Bare

The adjective bare means uncovered, naked, exposed (i.e., without cover, clothing or cladding), or empty.

Examples:
  • Don't go out in bare feet. You'll catch a cold.
  • Was the protestor totally bare when he ran in the meeting room?
  • You need to cover those pipes. Bare pipes will freeze this winter.
  • We haven't done our grocery shopping this week, and I'm afraid the cupboards are bare.
  • Peter ploughed those fields with his bear hands?
    • (This should be bare hands.)

A Video Summary

Here is a short video summarizing the difference between bear and bare.

Interactive Exercise
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See Also

adverse or averse? affect or effect? appraise or apprise? avenge or revenge? complement or compliment? dependant or dependent? discreet or discrete? disinterested or uninterested? e.g. or i.e.? envy or jealousy? imply or infer? its or it's? material or materiel? poisonous or venomous? practice or practise? principal or principle? tenant or tenet? who's or whose?
What are adjectives? What are verbs? List of easily confused words