spoor
/spʊɹ/noun, verb
spoor is spelled S-P-O-O-R: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 84,254th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spoor means “The track, trail, droppings, or scent of an animal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spoor is spoors.
How many letters and syllables are in spoor?
| Letters | 5: S-P-O-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words; the 84,254th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is spoor?
Spoor appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 84,254th 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 spoor?
- /spʊə/
- /spɔː/
- US /spʊɹ/
Spoor 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)-Vealhurl-spoor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with spoor
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with spoor?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spoor from its last stressed vowel (/ʊɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sopor, proso.
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).
Forms of spoor
- spoors plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- spooring participle, present
- spoored participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spoor mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The track, trail, droppings, or scent of an animal.
verb
- 1
To track (an animal) by following its spoor.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spoor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense trail left by an animal – see also track, trail:
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 spoor come from?
Early 19th century, from Afrikaans spoor, from Dutch spoor (“track”). Akin to Old English and Old Norse spor (whence Danish spor), and German Spur, all from Proto-Germanic *spurą. Compare spurn.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).