oravsoursWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,846
“ora” frequency rank
#5,527
“ours” frequency rank
30373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ora ours
Definition plural of os (“anatomical opening”) That or those belonging to us.

Letter map: ora vs ours

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

3 ch
ora
4 ch
ours

Role in the sentence - ora and ours

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ora is anoun and oursapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ora is recorded at frequency rank #24,846, classified as anoun. 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 30373, this pair ranks #355,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ora vs ours

Shared letters: or. Private to "ora": a. Private to "ours": su.

"ora" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ora" and "ours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ora" is a noun and "ours" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ora" or "ours" show up more?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,527 in our English list, against #24,846 for "ora". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ora" and "ours".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ora" 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 #355,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ora" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs ora". 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 #355,068 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