amourvsarmouryWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“amour” and “armoury” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,718
“amour” frequency rank
#40,123
“armoury” frequency rank
67841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amour armoury
Definition Courtship; flirtation. A place where arms are kept, an arsenal.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set amour and armoury apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
amour
7 ch
armoury

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. amour (/əˈmʊə/) and armoury (/ˈɑɹməɹi/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amour is recorded at frequency rank #27,718, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈmʊə/. armoury is at rank #40,123, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑɹməɹi/.

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 67841, this pair ranks #61,530 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of amour vs armoury

Shared letters: amoru. Private to "amour": -. Private to "armoury": y.

"amour" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "armoury" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amourammour · amoru · amourr · amuor · aomur · maour
  • armouryamroury · armmoury · armoruy · armourry · armouryy · armouyr · armuory · aromury

Frequency comparison

amour#27,718
armoury#40,123

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amour" and "armoury" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/əˈmʊə/ versus /ˈɑɹməɹi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "amour" or "armoury"?
"amour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,718 in our English list, against #40,123 for "armoury". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering amour vs armoury

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “amour” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list