Aural or oral?
aural is an adjective meaning “Of or pertaining to the ear”; oral is an adjective meaning “Relating to the mouth”. They sound the same (/ˈɔːɹəl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) oral is about 30 times as common as aural.
What is the difference between aural and oral?
| aural | oral | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Of or pertaining to the ear Of or pertaining to sound or hearing Of or pertaining to an aura | Relating to the mouth Done or taken by the mouth A spoken test or examination, particularly in a language class |
| Example | none recorded | oral hygiene |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɔːɹəl/ /ˈɔɹəl/ /ˈoɹəl/ | /ˈɔː.ɹəl/ /ˈoɹəl/ /ˈɑ.ɹəl/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 18 times per million words |
Sources: aural and oral 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 aural and oral
aural
- 1
Of or pertaining to the ear
- 2
Of or pertaining to an aura
- 3
Of or pertaining to sound or hearing
oral
- 1
Relating to the mouth
oral hygiene
- 2
A spoken test or examination, particularly in a language class
We've got our Spanish oral tomorrow
- 3
Done or taken by the mouth
- 4
A physical examination of the mouth
- 5
Pronounced by the voice resonating in the mouth, as the vowels in English
- 6
informalEllipsis of oral sex
I gave my boyfriend oral for the first time on his birthday
- 7
Relating to or denoting a stage of infantile psychosexual development during which libidinal gratification is derived from intake (as of food), by sucking, and later by biting
- 8
Ellipsis of oral steroid
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, aural or oral?
aural appears about once in every 2 million words; oral 18 times per million words.
aural about once in every 2 million wordsoral 18 times per 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 aural vs oral?
“aural vs oral” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“oral vs aural”, “aural or oral”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.