savorvssavourTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,826
“savor” frequency rank
#38,147
“savour” frequency rank
67973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature savor savour
Definition Alternative spelling of savour. An aroma or smell.

Letter map: savor vs savour

Shared letters muted; letters that set savor and savour apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. savor runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against savour's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
savor
6 ch
savour

Corpus notes: savor and savour

savor and savour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

savor is recorded at frequency rank #29,826, classified as anoun. savour is at rank #38,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈseɪvə/.

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 67973, this pair ranks #60,963 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of savor vs savour

Shared letters: aorsv. Private to "savor": -. Private to "savour": u.

"savor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "savour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • savor ← asvor · saovr · savorr · savro · savvor · ssavor · svaor
  • savour ← asvour · saovur · savoru · savourr · savuor · savvour · ssavour · svaour

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "savor" for "savour" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "savor" vs "savour" - which ranks higher?
"savor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,826 in our English list, against #38,147 for "savour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "savor" and "savour". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "savor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "savour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,963 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "savor" and "savour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "savin vs savor". 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 #60,963 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