# opium vs opus

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### opium
*noun · IPA /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/ · frequency rank #15,875*
A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.

### opus
*noun · IPA /ˈəʊpəs/ · frequency rank #23,619*
A work of music or set of works with a specified rank in an ordering of a composer's complete published works.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-03.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/opium-vs-opus