obavsOKWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“oba” and “OK” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,364
“oba” frequency rank
#750
“OK” frequency rank
41114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oba OK
Definition A king of a Yoruba polity. Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.

Letter map: oba vs OK

Shared letters muted; letters that set oba and OK apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
oba
2 ch
OK

Corpus notes: oba and OK

oba and OK are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oba is recorded at frequency rank #40,364, classified as anoun. OK is at rank #750, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌəʊˈkeɪ/.

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 41114, this pair ranks #261,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oba vs OK

Shared letters: o. Private to "oba": ab. Private to "OK": k.

"oba" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "OK" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "oba" for "OK" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "oba" vs "OK" - which ranks higher?
"OK" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #750 in our English list, against #40,364 for "oba". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "oba" and "OK".

  • Full dictionary entry for "oba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "OK" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oba" and "OK" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oba vs omi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #261,375 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list