odorsvsoursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: odors is a noun, ours is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“odors” is a noun and “ours” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,157
“odors” frequency rank
#5,527
“ours” frequency rank
35684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature odors ours
Definition plural of odor That or those belonging to us.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
odors
4 ch
ours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: odors is /ˈoʊ.dɚz/ while ours is /ˈaʊəz/. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

odors is recorded at frequency rank #30,157, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈoʊ.dɚz/. ours is at rank #5,527, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈaʊəz/.

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 35684, this pair ranks #309,821 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of odors vs ours

Shared letters: ors. Private to "odors": d. Private to "ours": u.

"odors" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • odorsoddors · odorrs · odorss · odosr · odros · oodrs
  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequency comparison

odors#30,157
ours#5,527

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "odors" and "ours" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "odors" is a noun and "ours" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "odors" or "ours"?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,527 in our English list, against #30,157 for "odors". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering odors vs ours

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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