obese
/oʊˈbis/
"obese" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obese” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,573. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,573
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their conventionally ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30 kg/m².
Corpus desk
Index EN-obese · obese · English
obese · rank #11,573 · 6 variants · 11 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,573
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 11 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH O'Neill
Nearest frequency peer: O'Neill (-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 “obese”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- mutually
mutually
88,431 corpus weight
- navigate
navigate
88,430 corpus weight
- O'Neill
O'Neill
88,429 corpus weight
- obese
obese
88,428 corpus weight
- outreach
outreach
88,427 corpus weight
- pandemic
pandemic
88,425 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “obese” 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 | obese |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /oʊˈbis/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,573 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “obese” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around obese (IPA /oʊˈbis/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #11,573 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their conventionally ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30 kg/m².".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for obese, with forms such as "boese", "obbese", and "obees". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "obs", "ones", "obey", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin obēsus, derived from obedō (“I devour, eat away”), from ob (“away”) + edō (“I eat”). Displaced native Old English oferfǣtt (literally “overfat”). The correct English form is obese, spelled O-B-E-S-E.
Definition
- 1Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their conventionally ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30 kg/m².
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how obese appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The president, being 74, a man and someone categorised as obese, is in a higher-risk category for Covid-19.
But it can be recalled that Locsin earlier called out DepEd for seemingly being “unaffected” by the actions of a teacher who body-shamed her by describing her ^([sic]) “an obese person” in a Physical Education (PE) educational material after the agency issued an apology.
Etymology
From Latin obēsus, derived from obedō (“I devour, eat away”), from ob (“away”) + edō (“I eat”). Displaced native Old English oferfǣtt (literally “overfat”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- boese
- obbese
- obees
- obesse
- obsee
- oebse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of obese - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "obese"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "obese", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
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.