The previously established similarity between the temperature spectrum and the spectrum corresponding to the mean turbulent energy in a wide variety of turbulent (shear) flows is re‐examined within the framework of second‐order velocity and temperature structure functions. Measurements in a turbulent wake indicate thatDq, the sum of the three second‐order velocity structure functions bears close similarity toD&thgr;, the second‐order temperature structure function, whenDqandD&thgr;are normalized by the mean turbulent energy and temperature variance, respectively. This similarity also applies to other flows. In the limit of small separations, the Kolmogorov‐normalized structure functions differ only by the value of the molecular Prandtl number. In the inertial range, the Obukhov–Corrsin constant differs from theDqKolmogorov constant by a factor equal to the dissipation time scale ratio. This ratio is typically about 0.5. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.