odor vs odour, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“odor” and “odour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,234
“odor” frequency rank: #30,518
“odour” frequency rank: 45752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	odor	odour
Definition	Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive.	British standard spelling of odor.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set odor and odour apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

odor

5 ch

odour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

odor and odour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

odor is recorded at frequency rank #15,234, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈəʊdə/. odour is at rank #30,518, tagged as anoun.

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 45752, this pair ranks #218,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of odor vs odour

Shared letters: dor. Private to "odor": -. Private to "odour": u.

"odor" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "odour" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

odor ← oddor · odorr · odro · oodr
odour ← doour · oddour · odoru · odourr · oduor · oodur

Frequency comparison

odor#15,234

odour#30,518

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "odor" and "odour" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "odor" or "odour"?

"odor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,234 in our English list, against #30,518 for "odour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering odor vs odour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “odor” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable