ob
/ɒb/
"ob" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ob” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,547) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #16,547
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - a halfpenny
Corpus desk
Index EN-ob · ob · English
ob · rank #16,547 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,547
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH nutshell
Nearest frequency peer: nutshell (-1 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 “ob”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Nielsen
Nielsen
83,457 corpus weight
- nr
nr
83,456 corpus weight
- nutshell
nutshell
83,455 corpus weight
- ob
ob
83,454 corpus weight
- obsessive
obsessive
83,453 corpus weight
- offending
offending
83,452 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ob” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | ob |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɒb/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #16,547 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ob” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ob is neighbouring look-alikes ("of", "on", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ɒb/. Frequency #16,547 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Gloss: "a halfpenny".
Zero misspellings are on record for ob in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "of", "on", "or", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin ob, abbreviation of obolus. The correct English form is ob, spelled O-B.
Definition
- 1a halfpenny
Etymology
From Latin ob, abbreviation of obolus.
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 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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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.