OnsvsoursConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#13,770
“Ons” frequency rank
#5,527
“ours” frequency rank
19297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ons ours
Definition A female given name from Arabic. That or those belonging to us.

Letter map: Ons vs ours

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ons and ours apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
Ons
4 ch
ours

Grammar separator: Ons vs ours

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ons is aname and oursapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ons is recorded at frequency rank #13,770, classified as aname. 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 19297, this pair ranks #439,148 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ons vs ours

Shared letters: os. Private to "Ons": n. Private to "ours": ru.

"Ons" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ons" and "ours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ons" is a name and "ours" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Ons" vs "ours" - which ranks higher?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,527 in our English list, against #13,770 for "Ons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Ons" vs "ours" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,148 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ons" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs Ons". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #439,148 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list