obi
/ˈoʊbi/
"obi" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obi” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #18,379) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #18,379
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sash worn with a kimono.
Corpus desk
Index EN-obi · obi · English
obi · rank #18,379 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #18,379
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH O'Donnell
Nearest frequency peer: O'Donnell (-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 neighbours of confusable “obi”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- NIH
NIH
81,625 corpus weight
- Novak
Novak
81,624 corpus weight
- O'Donnell
O'Donnell
81,623 corpus weight
- obi
obi
81,622 corpus weight
- oily
oily
81,621 corpus weight
- ostensibly
ostensibly
81,619 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “obi” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | obi |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈoʊbi/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #18,379 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “obi”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for obi is neighbouring look-alikes ("of", "on", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈoʊbi/. Frequency #18,379 among 1,431 “O” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Zero misspellings are on record for obi 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, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 帯 (obi, “belt”). The correct English form is obi, spelled O-B-I.
Definition
- 1A sash worn with a kimono.
- 2A strip of paper looped around a book or other product.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how obi appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The broad obi tied around her middle was orange and yellow. I'd never seen such elegant clothing.
They had known nothing of woolen cloth, but now the popularity of obi made of imported grogram spread like wildfire. This popularity produced various stories in its wake.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 帯 (obi, “belt”).
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "obi", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).