Ser or sir?
ser is a noun meaning “An old Indian unit of weight, equal to 80 tolas, or one fortieth of a maund”; sir is a noun meaning “A man of a higher rank or position”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sir is about 37 times as common as ser.
What is the difference between ser and sir?
| ser | sir | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb, adjective |
| Meaning | An old Indian unit of weight, equal to 80 tolas, or one fortieth of a maund | A man of a higher rank or position A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position, particularly informalTo address another individual using "sir" |
| Example | none recorded | Just be careful. He gets whingy now if you don't address him as Sir John |
| Forms | sers | sirs |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /sɜː/ /sɜɹ/ /sɪɾ/ |
| In writing | 3.1 times per million words | 115 times per million words |
Sources: ser and sir in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ser and sir
ser
- 1
Abbreviation of serial
- 2
An old Indian unit of weight, equal to 80 tolas, or one fortieth of a maund
- 3
Abbreviation of serial
- 4
Initialism of state emergency relief
- 5
Abbreviation of series
sir
- 1
A man of a higher rank or position
- 2
informalTo address another individual using "sir"
Sir, yes, sir! –Don't you sir me, private! I work for a living!
- 3
Alternative letter-case form of sir
- 4
Initialism of surface insulation resistance
- 5
Initialism of susceptible-infected/infectious-removed/recovered
- 6
A respectful term of address to a man of higher rank or position, particularly
- 7
UKThe titular prefix given to a knight or baronet
- 8
Abbreviation of silent information regulator
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ser or sir?
ser appears 3.1 times per million words; sir 115 times per million words.
ser 3.1 times per million wordssir 115 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search ser vs sir?
“ser vs sir” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sir vs ser”, “ser or sir”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.