yaw vs yore, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“yaw” and “yore” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,355
“yaw” frequency rank: #45,179
“yore” frequency rank: 79534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	yaw	yore
Definition	The rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.	A time long past.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set yaw and yore apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

yaw

4 ch

yore

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. yaw and yore are pronounced identically (/jɔː/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yaw is recorded at frequency rank #34,355, classified as anoun, pronounced /jɔː/. yore is at rank #45,179, tagged as anoun, pronounced /jɔː/.

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 79534, this pair ranks #21,854 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of yaw vs yore

Shared letters: y. Private to "yaw": aw. Private to "yore": eor.

"yaw" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "yore" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

yore ← oyre · yoer · yorre · yroe · yyore

Frequency comparison

yaw#34,355

yore#45,179

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "yaw" and "yore" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (/jɔː/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "yaw" or "yore"?

"yaw" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,355 in our English list, against #45,179 for "yore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering yaw vs yore

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “yaw” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable