# obey vs owed

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### obey
*verb · IPA /əʊˈbeɪ/ · frequency rank #9,219*
To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.

### owed
*verb · IPA /oʊd/ · frequency rank #8,838*
simple past and past participle of owe

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-02.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/obey-vs-owed