hobby
/ˈhɒ.bi/
"hobby" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hobby” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,800 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,800
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hobby |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɒ.bi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,800 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hobby” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hobby is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɒ.bi/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,800 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for hobby, with forms such as "hboby", "hhobby", and "hobbyy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "hoy", "holy", "hobo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Shortened from hobby-horse, from Middle English hoby, hobyn, hobin (“small horse, pony”), from Old French hobi, *haubi, haubby, hobin ("a nag, hobby"; > Modern French aubin, Italian ubino), of Germanic origin: from Old French hober, ober (“to stir, move”), … The correct English form is hobby, spelled H-O-B-B-Y.
Definition
- 1An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
- 2An extinct breed of horse native to the British Isles, also known as the Irish Hobby.
- 3Synonym of hobby horse (“a favorite topic”).
Etymology
Shortened from hobby-horse, from Middle English hoby, hobyn, hobin (“small horse, pony”), from Old French hobi, *haubi, haubby, hobin ("a nag, hobby"; > Modern French aubin, Italian ubino), of Germanic origin: from Old French hober, ober (“to stir, move”), from Old Dutch hobben (“to toss, move up and down”); or from North Germanic origin related to Danish hoppe (“a mare”), Old Swedish hoppa (“a young mare”), North Frisian hoppe (“horse”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb- (“to bend; a bend, joint”). More at hop, hobble. The meaning of hobby-horse shifted from "small horse, pony" to "child's toy riding horse" to "favorite pastime or avocation" with the connecting notion being "activity that doesn't go anywhere". Possibly originally from a proper name for a horse, a diminutive of Robert or Robin (compare dobbin).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hboby,hhobby,hobbyy,hoby,hobyb,ohbby
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hobby - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "hobby"?
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Using “hobby”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-B-B-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɒ.bi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hoy” - see the side-by-side comparison. hobby vs hoy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.