urevsuricWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ure is a noun, uric is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ure” is a noun and “uric” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,571
“ure” frequency rank
#45,151
“uric” frequency rank
80722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ure uric
Definition Use, practise, exercise. Pertaining to, contained in, or obtained from urine.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ure and uric apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
ure
4 ch
uric

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ure is anoun and uricanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ure is recorded at frequency rank #35,571, classified as anoun. uric is at rank #45,151, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈjʊɹɪk/.

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 80722, this pair ranks #19,193 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ure vs uric

Shared letters: ru. Private to "ure": e. Private to "uric": ci.

"ure" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "uric" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • uricruic · uirc · urci · uricc · urric

Frequency comparison

ure#35,571
uric#45,151

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ure" and "uric" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ure" is a noun and "uric" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ure" or "uric"?
"ure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,571 in our English list, against #45,151 for "uric". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ure vs uric

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “ure”; for an adjective, it's “uric”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ure” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list