o'svsOWSWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: o's is a noun, OWS is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“o's” is a noun and “OWS” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,902
“o's” frequency rank
#48,950
“OWS” frequency rank
79852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature o's OWS
Definition plural of the letter o Initialism of Occupy Wall Street: a protest movement that began in 2011 in New York City's Wall Street financial district, primarily opposing social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the influence of corporations on government.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set o's and OWS apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
o's
3 ch
OWS

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: o's is anoun and OWSaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - ' in “o's” becomes w in “OWS”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

o's is recorded at frequency rank #30,902, classified as anoun, pronounced /əʊz/. OWS is at rank #48,950, tagged as aname.

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 79852, this pair ranks #21,126 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of o's vs OWS

Shared letters: os. Private to "o's": -. Private to "OWS": w.

"o's" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "OWS" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequency comparison

o's#30,902
OWS#48,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "o's" and "OWS" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "o's" is a noun and "OWS" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "o's" or "OWS"?
"o's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,902 in our English list, against #48,950 for "OWS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering o's vs OWS

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “o's”; for a name, it's “OWS”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “o's” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list