obey
/əʊˈbeɪ/
"obey" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obey” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #9,219. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,219
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
Corpus desk
Index EN-obey · obey · English
obey · rank #9,219 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,219
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH notorious
Nearest frequency peer: notorious (-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 “obey”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Nepal
Nepal
90,786 corpus weight
- Newman
Newman
90,785 corpus weight
- notorious
notorious
90,783 corpus weight
- obey
obey
90,782 corpus weight
- Olivia
Olivia
90,781 corpus weight
- organizatio…
organizational
90,780 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “obey” 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 | 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
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around obey (IPA /əʊˈbeɪ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #9,219 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how obey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
obey the rules
obey your boss
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.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "obey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 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.