Which to use
“scour” is a verb and “spout” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,216
- “scour” frequency rank
- #25,218
- “spout” frequency rank
- 55434
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scour | spout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To clean, polish, or wash (something) by rubbing and scrubbing it vigorously, frequently with an abrasive or cleaning agent. | A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged. |
Where the eye mixes scour and spout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. scour and spout follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: scour vs spout
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: scour is /ˈskaʊə/ while spout is /spaʊt/. 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 55434, 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/. spout is at rank #25,218, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spaʊt/.
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 55434, this pair ranks #133,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of scour vs spout
Shared letters: osu. Private to "scour": cr. Private to "spout": pt.
"scour" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "spout" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "scour" and "spout" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "scour" vs "spout" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "scour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scour" and "spout" 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 #133,662 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.