ounce
/aʊns/noun
ounce is spelled O-U-N-C-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “once vs ounce” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, ounce means “An avoirdupois ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₆ of an avoirdupois pound, or 28.349523125 grams” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ounce is ounces.
How many letters and syllables are in ounce?
| Letters | 5: O-U-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.3 times per million words; the 9,594th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
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).
How common is ounce?
Ounce appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th 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 ounce?
- /aʊns/
Ounce 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-ounce.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ounce
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: once.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of ounce
- ounces plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ounce mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An avoirdupois ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₆ of an avoirdupois pound, or 28.349523125 grams.
- 2
A troy ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₂ of a troy pound, or 480 grains, or 31.1034768 grams.
- 3
A US fluid ounce, with a volume of ¹⁄₁₆ of a US pint, 1.804688 cubic inches or 29.5735295625 millilitres.
- 4
A British imperial fluid ounce, with a volume of ¹⁄₂₀ of an imperial pint, 1.733871 cubic inches or 28.4130625 millilitres.
- 5
Any small amount, a little bit.
He didn't feel even an ounce of regret for his actions.
- 6
archaicA large wild feline, such as a lynx or cougar.
- 7
Synonym of snow leopard, Panthera uncia.
- 8
Synonym of onza, a particularly aggressive cougar or jaguarundi in Mexican folklore.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate ounce?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of ounce: oz.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ounce in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense 28.3495 g:
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 ounce come from?
From Middle English ounce, unce, from Middle French once, from Latin ū̆ncia (“Roman ounce, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Doublet of a, one, inch, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).