hostage
/ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/
"hostage" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hostage” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,301 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,301
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
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 | hostage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #8,301 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hostage” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hostage is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,301 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for hostage, with forms such as "hhostage", "hosatge", and "hosstage". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "hostile", "homage", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the … The correct English form is hostage, spelled H-O-S-T-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
- 2A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.
- 3Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.
- 4One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.
- 5The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.
Etymology
From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhostage,hosatge,hosstage,hostaeg,hostagge,hostgae,hosttage,hotsage,hsotage,ohstage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hostage - 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
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Using “hostage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-S-T-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hostile” - see the side-by-side comparison. hostage vs hostile
- 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.