obey
/əʊˈbeɪ/
"obey" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obey” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,219 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #9,219
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
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 | obey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əʊˈbeɪ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,219 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “obey” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for obey is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əʊˈbeɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,219 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 generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for obey, with forms such as "boey", "obbey", and "obeyy". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oy", "OE", "one", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English obeyen, from Anglo-Norman obeir, obeier et al., Old French obeir, from Latin oboediō (also obēdiō (“to listen to, harken, usually in extended sense, obey, be subject to, serve”)), from ob- (“before, near”) + audiō (“to hear”). Compare au… The correct English form is obey, spelled O-B-E-Y.
Definition
- 1To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
- 2To do as one is told.
- 3To be obedient, compliant (to a given law, restriction etc.).
Etymology
From Middle English obeyen, from Anglo-Norman obeir, obeier et al., Old French obeir, from Latin oboediō (also obēdiō (“to listen to, harken, usually in extended sense, obey, be subject to, serve”)), from ob- (“before, near”) + audiō (“to hear”). Compare audient. In Latin, ob + audire would have been expected to become Classical Latin *obūdiō (compare in + claudō becoming inclūdō), but it has been theorized that the usual law court associations of the word for obeying encouraged a false archaism from ū to oe, to oboediō (compare Old Latin oinos → Classical Latin ūnus).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: boey,obbey,obeyy,obye,oeby
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of obey - 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 “obey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-B-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əʊˈbeɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “oy” - see the side-by-side comparison. obey vs oy
- 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.