ours

/ˈaʊɚz/pronoun

ours is spelled O-U-R-S: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a pronoun, ours means “Excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive ours)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in ours?

Letters	4: O-U-R-S
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	14 times per million words; the 5,496th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Same letters	sour

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ours?

Ours appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form in the list.

ours0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ours?

UK /ˈaʊəz/
UK /ɑːz/
US /ˈaʊɚz/

Ours has 2 syllables (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-ours.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ours?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ours (/aʊəɹz/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: sour.

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).

What does ours mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

pronoun

1
Excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive ours)
You can't take that! It's ours!
2
Including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive ours).
We should ask for it back. After all, it is ours.
3
That or those belonging to any entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc.
French food is better than ours.
4
That or those belonging to people in general.
As we get older, maintaining an active social life should be a priority of ours.
5
colloquialThat or those belonging to everyone being addressed.
Good evening everyone. How are we all tonight? I know I've got my happy face on; have we all got ours on too?
6
colloquialThat or those belonging to an individual being addressed; used especially to a person in the speaker's care, or to whom advice or instruction is being given.
Hello Mrs Miggins. How are we feeling this morning? Oh, what's that bottle of tablets under our chair? Is that ours?
7
colloquialUsed to imply connection between the speaker's experiences or activities and a group of listeners.
Hey guys, in this video I'll show you how I make my upside-down sponge cake. There are lots of recipes for these, but ours is the best.
8
informalOur house or home.
You can stay the night at ours if you like.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ours in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense that which belongs to us:

Language	Words
French	le nôtre, la nôtre, les nôtres
German	unserer, unsere, unseres
Portuguese	o nosso
Spanish	lo nuestro

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 ours come from?

From Middle English oures, attested since the 1300s. Equivalent to our + -s (compare -'s); formed by analogy to his. Displaced ourn (from Middle English ouren) in standard speech.