obs vs oss, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“obs” is a verb and “oss” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,006
“obs” frequency rank: #41,375
“oss” frequency rank: 59381
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	obs	oss
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs obsen	der Knochen

Letter map: obs vs oss

Shared letters muted; letters that set obs and oss apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

obs

3 ch

oss

Role in the sentence - obs and oss

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: obs is averb and ossanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - b in “obs” becomes s in “oss”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obs is recorded at frequency rank #18,006, classified as averb, pronounced [ɔps]. oss is at rank #41,375, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 59381, this pair ranks #826,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obs vs oss

Shared letters: os. Private to "obs": b. Private to "oss": -.

"obs" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "oss" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "obs" for "oss" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obs" is a verb and "oss" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "obs" or "oss"?

"obs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,006 in our German list, against #41,375 for "oss". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "obs" and "oss". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "obs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "oss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #826,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"obs" and "oss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oss vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #826,633 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.