ours
/ˈaʊəz/
"ours" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ours” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,527 in English word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #5,527
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - That or those belonging to us.
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 | ours |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | /ˈaʊəz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ours” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ours is 4 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈaʊəz/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,527 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for ours, with forms such as "orus", "ourrs", and "ourss". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "out", "OWS", "owns", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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. The correct English form is ours, spelled O-U-R-S.
Definition
- 1That or those belonging to us.
- 2That or those belonging to us.
- 3That 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.
- 4That or those belonging to people in general.
- 5That or those belonging to everyone being addressed.
- 6That 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.
- 7Used to imply connection between the speaker's experiences or activities and a group of listeners.
- 8Our house or home.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: orus,ourrs,ourss,ousr,uors
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ours - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Using “ours”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-U-R-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈaʊəz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “out” - see the side-by-side comparison. ours vs out
- 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.