pour
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "pour", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "pour" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "pour" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
pour is aEnglishverb. It means: To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it. Pronounced /pɔː/. It ranks #6,085 in English word frequency. Often confused with PR and PU.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pɔː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,085 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pour is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,085 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for pour, with forms such as "opur", "poru", and "pourr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PR", "PU", "put", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pouren (“to pour”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Northern French purer (“to sift (grain), pour out (water)”), from Latin pūrō (“to purify”), from pūrus (“pure”). Compare Middle Dutch afpuren (“to pour off, drain”). To pour displ… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is pour, spelled P-O-U-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
- 2To send out as in a stream or a flood; to cause (an emotion) to come out; to cause to escape.
- 3To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
- 4To flow, pass, or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.
- 5To rain hard.
- 6Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
- 7To move in a throng, as a crowd.
- 8To move (a drunk or unsteady person) into or out of a place or vehicle.
Etymology
From Middle English pouren (“to pour”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Northern French purer (“to sift (grain), pour out (water)”), from Latin pūrō (“to purify”), from pūrus (“pure”). Compare Middle Dutch afpuren (“to pour off, drain”). To pour displaced several Middle English verbs: * schenchen, schenken (“to pour”), from Old English sċenċan (“to pour out”) and Old Norse skenkja, from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Compare dialectal English shink, skink. * yeten, from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *geutaną. * birlen (“to pour, serve drink to”), from Old English byrelian (“to pour, serve drink to”). * hellen (“to pour, pour out”), from Old Norse hella (“to pour out, incline”). * temen (“to pour out, empty”), from Old Norse tœma (“to pour out, empty”). Compare archaic English teem.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opur,poru,pourr,ppour,puor
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pour
Misspelling Variants of "pour"
Frequency rank: #6,085 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "pour"?
What does "pour" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "pour"?
How do you pronounce "pour"?
What is the origin of the word "pour"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: