orivsoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ori” and “ours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,461
“ori” frequency rank
#4,358
“ours” frequency rank
41819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ori ours
Definition Abréviation de origine de réplication. Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés.

Where the eye mixes ori and ours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ori runs 3 letters (VCV) against ours's 4 (VVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ori
4 ch
ours

Why the eye confuses ori with ours

A purely visual mix-up. ori (\ɔ.ɛ.ʁi\) and ours (\uʁs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ori is recorded at frequency rank #37,461, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ɛ.ʁi\. ours is at rank #4,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \uʁs\.

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 41819, this pair ranks #230,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ori vs ours

Shared letters: or. Private to "ori": i. Private to "ours": su.

"ori" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ours ← orus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ori" and "ours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.ɛ.ʁi\ versus \uʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ori" or "ours"?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,358 in our French list, against #37,461 for "ori". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ori" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #230,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ori" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs ori". 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 #230,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list