o-clock
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "o-clock", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "o-clock" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "o-clock" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
o'clock is anEnglishadv. It means: In conjunction with a numeral, indicates the time within a twelve-hour period (midnight to noon or noon to midnight), specifically the time when the hour hand of a clock points precisely to the sym... Pronounced /əˈklɒk/. It ranks #6,716 in English word frequency.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | o'clock |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adv |
| IPA | /əˈklɒk/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #6,716 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for o'clock is 7 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈklɒk/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,716 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for o'clock, with forms such as "'oclock", "o'cclock", and "o'clcok". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Shortened form of "of the clock", from Middle English of the clokke [from late 14th c.]. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is o'clock, spelled O-'-C-L-O-C-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1In conjunction with a numeral, indicates the time within a twelve-hour period (midnight to noon or noon to midnight), specifically the time when the hour hand of a clock points precisely to the symbol or marking corresponding to the designated numeral, i.e., at the hour.
- 2Used to indicate that it is time to do a specific action, or time for a specific action to occur.
- 3In conjunction with a numeral, indicates the direction, relative to the speaker or a vehicle, especially an aircraft, corresponding to the direction the hour hand is pointing at the time corresponding to the numeral, with twelve representing directly ahead on a horizontal plane, or directly up on a vertical plane, and three being to the right on either.
Etymology
Shortened form of "of the clock", from Middle English of the clokke [from late 14th c.].
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: 'oclock,o'cclock,o'clcok,o'cllock,o'clocck,o'clockk,o'clokc,o'colck,o'lcock,oc'lock
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for o'clock
Misspelling Variants of "o'clock"
Frequency rank: #6,716 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: