Or

How to spell or

2 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce or

What does or mean?

1. conjunctionA word linking alternatives, used to present a choice between two or more options.

Or in a sentence

• You can pay by card or cash at the desk.

• We could meet on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Where does or come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This little word descends from Old English, where the longer form 'oththe' meant 'or' and an unstressed variant 'other' competed alongside it. By Middle English this had worn down to the short forms 'other' and finally the clipped 'or' we still use today, a typical case of a heavily used function word eroding over centuries of speech. It is purely native Germanic in origin, with cousins in the older Germanic languages that expressed the same sense of choice between alternatives. Because it is so short and unstressed, it is easily confused in writing with its homophones 'ore' (rock containing metal) and 'oar' (a rowing blade), even though those words have completely separate roots. Remembering that 'or' is the bare, two-letter form with nothing extra attached is the simplest guard against writing one of its longer look-alikes.

How the word is built

• or (a single Old English conjunction, no prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like or

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• ore: A naturally occurring rock or mineral from which a metal can be extracted, usually at a profit.