yorevsyrsConfusable pair

Quick tell: yore is a noun, yrs is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“yore” is a noun and “yrs” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,179
“yore” frequency rank
#14,675
“yrs” frequency rank
59854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature yore yrs
Definition A time long past. Abbreviation of yours (when signing a letter).

Letter map: yore vs yrs

Shared letters muted; letters that set yore and yrs apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. yore runs 4 letters (VVCV) against yrs's 3 (VCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
yore
3 ch
yrs

Grammar separator: yore vs yrs

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: yore is anoun and yrsapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yore is recorded at frequency rank #45,179, classified as anoun, pronounced /jɔː/. yrs is at rank #14,675, tagged as apron.

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 59854, this pair ranks #103,702 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of yore vs yrs

Shared letters: ry. Private to "yore": eo. Private to "yrs": s.

"yore" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "yrs" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • yore ← oyre · yoer · yorre · yroe · yyore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "yore" for "yrs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "yore" is a noun and "yrs" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "yore" or "yrs" show up more?
"yrs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,675 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "yore" and "yrs".

  • Full dictionary entry for "yore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "yrs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,702 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "yore" and "yrs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "yore vs yoyo". 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 #103,702 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list