ObamavsObamasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,463
“Obama” frequency rank
#38,998
“Obamas” frequency rank
40461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Obama Obamas
Definition An African surname from Luo. plural of Obama

Letter map: Obama vs Obamas

Shared letters muted; letters that set Obama and Obamas apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. Obama runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against Obamas's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Obama
6 ch
Obamas

Corpus notes: Obama and Obamas

Obama and Obamas 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 extra letter(s) - “Obama” sits inside “Obamas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Obama is recorded at frequency rank #1,463, classified as aname, pronounced /oʊˈbɑ.mə/. Obamas is at rank #38,998, tagged as aname.

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 40461, this pair ranks #267,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Obama vs Obamas

Shared letters: abmo. Private to "Obama": -. Private to "Obamas": s.

"Obama" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "Obamas" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Obama ← boama · oabma · obaam · obamma · obbama · obmaa
  • Obamas ← boamas · oabmas · obaams · obamass · obammas · obamsa · obbamas · obmaas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Obama" and "Obamas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Obama” sits inside “Obamas”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "Obama" or "Obamas"?
"Obama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,463 in our English list, against #38,998 for "Obamas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "Obama" vs "Obamas" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Obama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Obamas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Obama" and "Obamas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Obamas vs Osama". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #267,390 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