our
our Lexical Profile
our Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more other people previously mentioned or easily identified.
"We decided to paint our house a bright shade of yellow this summer."
Belonging to or associated with people in general, or the human race as a whole.
"Protecting the environment is crucial for the future of our planet."
Used formally by a monarch, senior official, or editorial writer to refer to something belonging to or associated with themselves.
"It is our royal pleasure to welcome the visiting delegation to the palace."
• pronoun
The possessive determiner form of 'we', used before a noun to indicate possession, affiliation, or association with the speaker and one or more others.
"Our team worked tirelessly through the weekend to complete the research project on time."
Word Nuance & Usage
Frequently confused in spoken English with the homophone 'hour' (a sixty-minute period of time) and in casual speech with 'are' (the present plural form of 'be'). Unlike the independent possessive pronoun 'ours', 'our' is a possessive determiner and must always precede a noun or noun phrase.
• Rhymes for our
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English 'oure', derived from Old English 'ūre' (the genitive form of 'wē', meaning 'of us'), ultimately tracing back to Proto-Germanic '*unseraz' and the Proto-Indo-European first-person plural pronoun root '*nes-'.