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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

our.

Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our).

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

det/ˈaʊə(ɹ)//ɑː(ɹ)//ˈwɔː//wɐ/
  1. Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our).

    determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    Sorry, you're not invited to our party.
  2. Belonging to us, including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive our).

    determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    We must try to save our marriage for the sake of our children.
  3. Of, from, or belonging to any entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc.

    determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    Our safety record at ABC Widgets is very good.
    In English, our nouns do not generally have gender.
  4. Belonging to people in general.

    determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    As we get older, our reactions get slower.
  5. Belonging to everyone being addressed.

    colloquial · determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    How are we all tonight? Have we got our happy faces on?
  6. Belonging to an individual being addressed; used especially of a person in the speaker's care, or to whom advice or instruction is being given.

    colloquial · determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    How are we feeling this morning, Mrs Miggins? Have we taken our tablets yet?
    You've been spending all your money boozing when you have a wife and family to support. I think we need to get our priorities straight.
  7. Belonging to a third person, especially someone in the speaker's care.

    colloquial · determiner · first-person · plural · possessive · uncommon
    "I've just been to see Mrs Miggins." — "And how is she?" — "Not too good today. We've had a little problem with our tummy."
  8. Used to imply connection between the speaker's experiences or activities and a group of listeners.

    colloquial · determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    Hey guys, in this video I'll show you how I make my upside-down sponge cake. First, let's get our ingredients weighed out.
  9. Used before a person's name to indicate that the person is in one's family, or is a very close friend.

    Northern-England · Scotland · determiner · first-person · plural · possessive
    I'm going to see our Terry for tea.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English oure, from Old English ūre, ūser (“our”), from Proto-Germanic *unseraz (“of us, our”), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-s-ero- (“our”). Cognate with Scots oor (“our”), West Frisian ús (“our”), Low German uns (“our”), Dutch onze (“our”), German unser, unsere (“our”) Danish vor (“our”), Norwegian vår (“our”), and more distantly Latin noster.

verb/ˈaʊə(ɹ)//ɑː(ɹ)//ˈwɔː//wɐ/
  1. Misspelling of are.

    alt-of · misspelling
Where this word comes from

From Middle English oure, from Old English ūre, ūser (“our”), from Proto-Germanic *unseraz (“of us, our”), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-s-ero- (“our”). Cognate with Scots oor (“our”), West Frisian ús (“our”), Low German uns (“our”), Dutch onze (“our”), German unser, unsere (“our”) Danish vor (“our”), Norwegian vår (“our”), and more distantly Latin noster.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.