Which to use
“obese” and “obtuse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,573
- “obese” frequency rank
- #27,588
- “obtuse” frequency rank
- 39161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obese | obtuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form. |
Where the eye mixes obese and obtuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. obese runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against obtuse's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between obese and obtuse
A purely visual mix-up. obese (/oʊˈbis/) and obtuse (/əbˈtjuːs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obese is recorded at frequency rank #11,573, classified as anadj, pronounced /oʊˈbis/. obtuse is at rank #27,588, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əbˈtjuːs/.
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 39161, this pair ranks #279,270 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obese vs obtuse
Shared letters: beos. Private to "obese": -. Private to "obtuse": tu.
"obese" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "obtuse" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "obese" and "obtuse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "obese" vs "obtuse" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "obese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obtuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #279,270 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obese" and "obtuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obese vs obverse". 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 #279,270 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.