opensvsoresConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,441
“opens” frequency rank
#30,161
“ores” frequency rank
33602
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opens ores
Definition plural of open plural of ore

Where the eye mixes opens and ores

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
opens
4 ch
ores

Look-alike desk: opens vs ores

A purely visual mix-up. opens (/ˈoʊ.pənz/) and ores (/ɔːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opens is recorded at frequency rank #3,441, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈoʊ.pənz/. ores is at rank #30,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɔːz/.

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 33602, this pair ranks #328,016 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of opens vs ores

Shared letters: eos. Private to "opens": np. Private to "ores": r.

"opens" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "ores" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • opensoepns · openns · openss · opesn · opnes · oppens · poens
  • oresoers · oress · orres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "opens" and "ores" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈoʊ.pənz/ versus /ɔːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "opens" or "ores" show up more?
"opens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,441 in our English list, against #30,161 for "ores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "opens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ores" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,016 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opens" and "ores" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ores vs OWS". 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 #328,016 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