O'Dea
/oʊˈdiː/
"o-dea" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“O'Dea” is uncommon English (frequency #84,568 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,568
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname from Irish.
Corpus desk
Index EN-o-dea · O'Dea · English
O'Dea · rank #84,568 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,568
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH Nygaard
Nearest frequency peer: Nygaard (-2 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “O'Dea”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- nonlinearity
nonlinearity
15,440 corpus weight
- Nygaard
Nygaard
15,435 corpus weight
- O'Dea
O'Dea
15,433 corpus weight
- Oakridge
Oakridge
15,431 corpus weight
- obeisance
obeisance
15,428 corpus weight
- Obrador
Obrador
15,427 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “O'Dea” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | O'Dea |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /oʊˈdiː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #84,568 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “O'Dea” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
O'Dea is uncommon English at frequency #84,568 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /oʊˈdiː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname from Irish.".
O'Dea doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Anglicisation of Irish Ó Deághaidh (“descendant of Deághadh”), a personal name held by tenth-century Irish chieftain, from deagh (“good”) + ádh (“luck, fate”). The correct English form is O'Dea, spelled O-'-D-E-A.
Definition
- 1A surname from Irish.
Etymology
Anglicisation of Irish Ó Deághaidh (“descendant of Deághadh”), a personal name held by tenth-century Irish chieftain, from deagh (“good”) + ádh (“luck, fate”).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "O'Dea", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #84,568 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "O" letter cohort. O–Z browse
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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.