Which to use
“harbor” is a noun and “harbour” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,622
- “harbor” frequency rank
- #39,828
- “harbour” frequency rank
- 64450
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harbor | harbour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rade, havre. | Abriter. |
Letter map: harbor vs harbour
Shared letters muted; letters that set harbor and harbour apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. harbor runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against harbour's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for harbor / harbour
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: harbor is anoun and harbouraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harbor is recorded at frequency rank #24,622, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɑːr.bɜː\. harbour is at rank #39,828, tagged as averb.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 64450, this pair ranks #77,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of harbor vs harbour
Shared letters: abhor. Private to "harbor": -. Private to "harbour": u.
"harbor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "harbour" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "harbor" and "harbour" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "harbor" or "harbour" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "harbor" and "harbour".
- Full dictionary entry for "harbor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "harbour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harbor" and "harbour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harbour vs Harcourt". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #77,047 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.