Which to use
“scour” is a verb and “snout” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,216
- “scour” frequency rank
- #26,255
- “snout” frequency rank
- 56471
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scour | snout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To clean, polish, or wash (something) by rubbing and scrubbing it vigorously, frequently with an abrasive or cleaning agent. | The long, projecting nose, mouth, and jaw of a beast, as of pigs. |
Where the eye mixes scour and snout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. scour and snout follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses scour with snout
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scour is /ˈskaʊə/ while snout is /snaʊt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scour is recorded at frequency rank #30,216, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈskaʊə/. snout is at rank #26,255, tagged as anoun, pronounced /snaʊt/.
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 56471, this pair ranks #126,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of scour vs snout
Shared letters: osu. Private to "scour": cr. Private to "snout": nt.
"scour" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "snout" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "scour" for "snout" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "scour" or "snout" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "scour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "snout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scour" and "snout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "SCO vs scour". 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 #126,060 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.