Flower vs Flour

“Flower” (noun) means the blossom of a plant. “Flour” (noun) means the powdered grain used in baking. Flower and flour are homophones: they sound exactly the same when spoken, but they are spelled differently and mean completely different things.

Yes, “flower” functions as a noun in standard English. The blossom of a plant.

Yes, “flour” functions as a noun in standard English. The powdered grain used in baking.

“Flower” has an “ow” you can picture opening like a bloom; “flour” is the finer, plainer word for the finer, plainer powder in your baking tin.

Here is an example: “She planted flowers along the garden path.”

Here is an example: “Add 200 grams of flour to the bowl.”

Yes. “Flower” and “flour” are true homophones — in standard English pronunciation they sound identical, even though the spelling and meaning are completely different. You can only tell them apart from context, not from sound.

A homophone is a word that sounds exactly the same as another word but has a different spelling and a different meaning. The term comes from the Greek 'homo' (same) and 'phone' (sound). See the LexFizz Homophones hub and Glossary entry for more examples.

Yes — homophone pairs like flower/flour are a common source of spelling mistakes even for native speakers, because the identical pronunciation gives no clue about which spelling is correct. Spell-checkers often miss these errors too, since both words are spelled correctly — just used in the wrong place.

Practise flower and flour in full sentences rather than as an isolated pair, and quiz yourself with LexFizz's Flash Cards and Quiz exercises. Writing a few of your own example sentences for each word is one of the fastest ways to make the distinction automatic.