ore
/oɹ/noun
ore is spelled O-R-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 6,047th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “oar vs ore” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, ore means “Rock or other material that contains valuable or utilitarian materials; primarily a rock containing metals or gems for which it is typically mined…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ore is ores or öres.
How many letters and syllables are in ore?
| Letters | 3: O-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 6,047th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ore?
Ore appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 6,047th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ore?
- US /oɹ/
- UK /ɔː/
- /o(ː)ɹ/
Ore has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ore.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ore
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: aw, awe, o'er, oar, or (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: over.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ore?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ore from its last stressed vowel (/oɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: roe, reo, eor.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ore
- ores plural
- woar
- öres plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ore mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Rock or other material that contains valuable or utilitarian materials; primarily a rock containing metals or gems for which it is typically mined and processed.
- 2
A unit of currency used in England around the 10th to 12th centuries.
- 3
A type of fine wool, especially of the type historically produced in the market town of Leominster, Herefordshire.
- 4
archaicSeaweed, especially that which is washed up ashore.
- 5
Alternative form of öre.
noun
- 1
A Swedish unit of currency that makes up the krona. 100 öre equals one krona.
Wiktionary also records ore as a common misspelling of another word in some uses; the senses above are its own.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ore in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense rock that contains materials that can be economically extracted and processed:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ore come from?
From Middle English or, oor, blend of Old English ōra (“ore, unwrought metal”), of uncertain origin, and ār (“brass, copper, bronze”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *aiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éyos. Compare Old Norse eir (“brass, copper”), German ehern (“of metal, of iron”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌶 (aiz, “ore”); also Dutch oer (“ferrous hardpan; bog iron ore”). Compare Latin aes (“bronze, copper”), Avestan 𐬀𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬵 (aiiah), Sanskrit अयस् (áyas, “copper, iron”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).