Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell hour

What it means: A unit of time equal to 60 minutes.

In a sentence: There is one hour until dinner time. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent h, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as our or houer.

Sounds like, but is not: our. Same sound, different spelling and meaning.

Same family: hours, hourly, half-hour, after-hours. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Hour” comes from Old French *hore* and Latin *hora*, meaning a fixed time or season. Long ago, the length of an “hour” could change with the seasons, but it later became the standard 60 minutes we use today.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa) · Silent letters

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

where · whose · one · to · some · sure · were · new

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