# obese vs oboe

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### obese
*adjective · IPA /oʊˈbis/ · frequency rank #11,573*
Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their conventionally ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30 kg/m².

### oboe
*noun · IPA /ˈəʊbəʊ/ · frequency rank #42,302*
A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/obese-vs-oboe