oars vs Oates, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“oars” is a noun and “Oates” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,647
“oars” frequency rank: #28,648
“Oates” frequency rank: 57295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	oars	Oates
Definition	plural of oar	A surname.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set oars and Oates apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

oars

5 ch

Oates

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oars is /ɔːz/ while Oates is /əʊts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oars is recorded at frequency rank #28,647, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɔːz/. Oates is at rank #28,648, tagged as aname, pronounced /əʊts/.

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 57295, this pair ranks #120,294 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of oars vs Oates

Shared letters: aos. Private to "oars": r. Private to "Oates": et.

"oars" · 4 letters · shape VVCC · "Oates" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

oars ← aors · oarrs · oarss · oasr · oras
Oates ← aotes · oaets · oatess · oatse · oattes · otaes

Frequency comparison

oars#28,647

Oates#28,648

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oars" and "Oates" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oars" is a noun and "Oates" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "oars" or "Oates"?

"oars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,647 in our English list, against #28,648 for "Oates". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering oars vs Oates

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “oars”; for a name, it's “Oates”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “oars” entry
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