Auger or augur?
auger is a noun meaning “A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet”; augur is a noun meaning “A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) auger is about 1.9 times as common as augur.
What is the difference between auger and augur?
| auger | augur | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool) To use an auger; to drill a hole using an auger | A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or by signs derived from celestial phenomena, or unusual occurrences An official who interpreted omens before the start of public events To foretell events; to exhibit signs of future events; to indicate a favorable or an unfavorable outcome |
| Example | none recorded | Every circumstance augured success |
| Forms | augers | augurs |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɔː.ɡə(ɹ)/ /ˈɔ.ɡɚ/ /ˈɑ.ɡɚ/ | /ˈɔːɡə/ /ˈoːɡə/ /ˈɔɡɚ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: auger and augur in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of auger and augur
auger
- 1
A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet
- 2
To use an auger; to drill a hole using an auger
- 3
A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool)
- 4
To proceed in the manner of an auger
- 5
A tool used to bore holes in the ground, e.g. for fence posts
- 6
To daydream
- 7
A hollow drill used to take core samples of soil, ice, etc. for scientific study
augur
- 1
A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or by signs derived from celestial phenomena, or unusual occurrences
- 2
To foretell events; to exhibit signs of future events; to indicate a favorable or an unfavorable outcome
Every circumstance augured success
- 3
An official who interpreted omens before the start of public events
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, auger or augur?
auger appears about once in every 2 million words; augur about once in every 3 million words.
auger about once in every 2 million wordsaugur about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search auger vs augur?
“auger vs augur” is searched about 20 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.