Word Confusion: O’er vs Oar vs Or vs Ore

Plural for the noun: oars
Gerund: oaring

Third person present verb: oars
Past tense or past participle: oared
Present participle: oaring

Plural for noun: ores

Adverb:
Throughout a period of time

Preposition:
Before

• A rower

Something resembling a pole with a flat blade or having a similar purpose

Verb, intransitive:
To row

To move or advance as if by rowing

Verb, transitive:
Row

• Propel with or as with oars

To traverse or make one’s way by, or as if by, rowing

Operations research

Owner’s risk

[Law] One’s own recognizance

[Official postal use] Oregon

[British Military] other ranks (as opposed to commissioned officers)

Operating room

Conjunction:
Used to link alternatives ²

Introducing a synonym or explanation of a preceding word or phrase

Otherwise (used to introduce the consequences of something not being done or not being the case)

Introducing an afterthought, usually in the form of a question

[Literary] Either

Otherwise

• Or else

Noun:
A Boolean operator that gives the value one if at least one operand (or input) has a value of one, and otherwise has a value of zero ²

• [Also OR gate] A circuit that gives an output signal if there is a signal on any of its inputs

[Heraldry; postpositive] Gold or yellow, as an official color used in heraldic devices ³

Suffix:
-or

[Forming adjectives] Expressing a comparative sense ⁵

[Forming nouns] Denoting a state or condition ⁶

US form of the British suffix, -our ⁷

“You cannot sure forget A prison-roof is o’er you, Strafford?” (Clarke).

“Wide o’er the ethereal walks extends thy sway, And o’er the infernal mansions void of day! Look upon us on earth!” (Various).

You should stay o’er the weekend.

“The world’s great empress on the Egyptian plain, that spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states” (Silverberg).

Tell me when the night is o’er.

Preposition:
As long as mist hangs o’er the mountains, the deeds of the brave will be remembered.

O’er land and sea they sped.

“We see him now — the old slouched hat cocked o’er his eye askew,/
The shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat, so calm, so blunt, so true” (Palmer).

I was stroke oar and John was in the bow.

Jane dipped her oars in and pulled smoothly away.

Must he always stick his oar in!

If we each take an oar, it’ll be easier and give us a chance to get to know each other.

The difference between oars and paddles are that oars are connected to the boat while paddles are held by the rowers.

I don’t think anyone has used these beat-up oars in years.

Ship the oars, lad, so we can drag the boat up on shore.

I was doing quite well until you stuck your oar in.

Verb, intransitive:
We oared carefully through the weeds.

She oared strongly across the finish line.

So, they oared once more, and I looked out for anything like a house.

Verb, transitive:
They were oaring the sea like madmen.

Since the wind had completely died, they had to oar the sailboat back to shore.

It’ll take an hour to oar the strait.

Address it to Henry Stanton, 1319 West Main, Portland OR 97205.

That corporal shouldn’t be in the officers’ mess. He’s OR!

Get him into the OR, stat!

They released him on OR.

Be cautious of that OR clause in a mover’s contract.

Conjunction:
Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?

Are you coming or not?

She couldn’t read or write.

I either take taxis or walk everywhere.

It doesn’t matter whether the theory is right or wrong.

I prefer the espionage novel, or as it is known in the trade, the thriller.

Hurry up or you’ll miss it all.

John’s indifference — or was it? — left her unsettled.

To love is the one way to know God or man.

I don’t know. There were a dozen or so people.

Noun:
An OR gate is sometimes called an any or all gate.

The most celebrated armorial dispute in English heraldry is that of Scrope v. Grosvenor in 1390, in which two different men claimed the right to bear azure, a bend or.

Suffix:
Let’s take the escalator.

Is that the governor?

Is it a bad resistor?

I can’t decide if it needs a minor or major beat.

It’s an unholy error.

Look at the pallor of her face!

She’s in terror of her life.

This egg salad has a weird flavor.

He was our Lord and Savior.

I want to savor every moment.

Copper ore is commonly found scattered more or less uniformly through a large volume of rock.

Ore is always mixed with unwanted or valueless rocks and minerals that are collectively known as gangue.

Gold is usually extracted by crushing the ore.

1. Unknown.
2. From Middle English in a reduced form of the obsolete conjunction other, which superseded the Old English oththe meaning or and is of uncertain ultimate origin.
3. Early 16th century from the French, which is from the Latin aurum meaning gold.
4. From Latin, sometimes via the Anglo-Norman French -eour or the Old French -eor (see also -ator).
5. Via Anglo-Norman French from Latin.
6. From Latin, sometimes via the Old French -or, -ur.
7. 1828, when Webster’s dictionary popularized this form.