Spoor or spore?
spoor is a noun meaning “The track, trail, droppings, or scent of an animal”; spore is a noun meaning “A reproductive particle, usually a single cell, released by a fungus, alga, or…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) spore is about 7.9 times as common as spoor.
What is the difference between spoor and spore?
| spoor | spore | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | The track, trail, droppings, or scent of an animal To track (an animal) by following its spoor | A reproductive particle, usually a single cell, released by a fungus, alga, or plant that may germinate into another A thick resistant particle produced by a bacterium or protist to survive in harsh or unfavorable conditions To produce spores |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | spoors | spores |
| Pronunciation | /spʊə/ /spɔː/ /spʊɹ/ | /spɔː(ɹ)/ /spoɹ/ /spoː(ɹ)/ |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words | 1.0 times per million words |
Sources: spoor and spore 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 spoor and spore
spoor
- 1
The track, trail, droppings, or scent of an animal
- 2
To track (an animal) by following its spoor
spore
- 1
A reproductive particle, usually a single cell, released by a fungus, alga, or plant that may germinate into another
- 2
To produce spores
- 3
A thick resistant particle produced by a bacterium or protist to survive in harsh or unfavorable conditions
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, spoor or spore?
spoor appears about once in every 8 million words; spore 1.0 times per million words.
spoor about once in every 8 million wordsspore 1.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).