oar
/ɔː/
"oar" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“oar” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #33,347 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #33,347
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A type of lever used to propel a boat, having a flat blade at one end and a handle at the other, and pivoted in a rowlock atop the gunwale, whereby a rower seated in the boat and pulling the handle...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | oar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɔː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #33,347 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “oar” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for oar is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,347 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for oar in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "of", "on", "or", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ore (“oar”), from Old English ār, from Proto-West Germanic *airu, from Proto-Germanic *airō (“oar”). Cognate with Old Norse ár. The correct English form is oar, spelled O-A-R.
Definition
- 1A type of lever used to propel a boat, having a flat blade at one end and a handle at the other, and pivoted in a rowlock atop the gunwale, whereby a rower seated in the boat and pulling the handle can pass the blade through the water by repeated strokes against the water's resistance, thus moving the boat.
- 2An oarsman; a rower.
- 3An oar-like swimming organ of various invertebrates.
Etymology
From Middle English ore (“oar”), from Old English ār, from Proto-West Germanic *airu, from Proto-Germanic *airō (“oar”). Cognate with Old Norse ár.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "oar"?
What does "oar" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "oar"?
How do you pronounce "oar"?
What is the origin of the word "oar"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “oar”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɔː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “of” - see the side-by-side comparison. oar vs of
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.