scour
/ˈskaʊə/
"scour" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scour” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,216 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #30,216
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To clean, polish, or wash (something) by rubbing and scrubbing it vigorously, frequently with an abrasive or cleaning agent.
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 | scour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈskaʊə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #30,216 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scour is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈskaʊə/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,216 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for scour, with forms such as "csour", "sccour", and "scoru". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sou", "sor", "soul", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scǒuren (“to polish, scour; to clean; to beat, whip”), from Middle Dutch scuren, schuren (“to clean; to polish”) or Middle Low German schǖren, of uncertain origin but probably from Old French escurer, from Medieval Latin scūrō, escūrō, e… The correct English form is scour, spelled S-C-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1To clean, polish, or wash (something) by rubbing and scrubbing it vigorously, frequently with an abrasive or cleaning agent.
- 2To remove debris and dirt (from something) by purging; to sweep along or off by a current of water.
- 3To clear the digestive tract (of an animal) by administering medication that induces defecation or vomiting; to purge.
- 4To (cause livestock to) suffer from diarrhoea or dysentery.
- 5To cleanse (something) without rubbing.
Etymology
From Middle English scǒuren (“to polish, scour; to clean; to beat, whip”), from Middle Dutch scuren, schuren (“to clean; to polish”) or Middle Low German schǖren, of uncertain origin but probably from Old French escurer, from Medieval Latin scūrō, escūrō, excūrō (“to clean off”), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + cūrō (“to arrange, see to, take care of”), from cūra (“care, concern”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeys- (“to heed”)) + -ō. The word is cognate with Danish skure, Middle High German schüren, schiuren (modern German scheuern (“to scour, scrub; to chafe”)), Norwegian skura (“to scrub”), Swedish skura, Catalan escurar.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csour,sccour,scoru,scourr,scuor,socur,sscour
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of scour - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "scour"?
What does "scour" mean?
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Using “scour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-O-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈskaʊə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sou” - see the side-by-side comparison. scour vs sou
- 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.