Hour or our?
hour is a noun meaning “A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes)”; our is a determiner meaning “Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our)”. Use hour as a noun and our as a determiner. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) our is about 9.1 times as common as hour.
What is the difference between hour and our?
| hour | our | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | determiner, suffix, noun |
| Meaning | A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes) A season, moment, or time | Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our) Belonging to us, including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive our) UKUsed to form abstract nouns of state, quality, or action from Latin or French roots |
| Example | Holonyms: day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond <… | Sorry, you're not invited to our party |
| Forms | hours | wor |
| Pronunciation | /aʊə/ /aː(ɹ)/ /uːɐ/ | /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/ /ɑː(ɹ)/ /ˈwɔː/ |
| In writing | 151 times per million words | 1,380 times per million words |
Sources: hour and our 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 hour and our
hour
- 1
A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes)
Holonyms: day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond <…
- 2
A season, moment, or time
Don't come home ever again at this unearthly hour
- 3
The time
The hour grows late and I must go home
- 4
Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time
- 5
The amount of labor demanded by an employer in terms of time
I asked my manager for more hours
- 6
The set times of prayer, the canonical hours, the offices or services prescribed for these, or a book containing them
- 7
USA distance that can be traveled in one hour
This place is an hour away from where I live
our
- 1
Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our)
Sorry, you're not invited to our party
- 2
UKUsed to form abstract nouns of state, quality, or action from Latin or French roots
colour, favour, honour, labour, valour
- 3
Pronunciation spelling of hour
- 4
Belonging to us, including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive our)
We must try to save our marriage for the sake of our children
- 5
Of, from, or belonging to any entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc
Our safety record at ABC Widgets is very good
- 6
Belonging to people in general
As we get older, our reactions get slower
- 7
colloquialBelonging to everyone being addressed
How are we all tonight? Have we got our happy faces on?
- 8
colloquialBelonging to an individual being addressed; used especially of a person in the speaker's care, or to whom advice or instruction is being given
How are we feeling this morning, Mrs Miggins? Have we taken our tablets yet?
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, hour or our?
hour appears 151 times per million words; our 1,380 times per million words.
hour 151 times per million wordsour 1,380 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).