Obie
"obie" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Obie” is uncommon English (frequency #70,131 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,131
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small lamp positioned over the camera, sometimes used to produce catchlights in the subject's eyes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Obie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #70,131 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Obie” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Obie is uncommon English at frequency #70,131 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A small lamp positioned over the camera, sometimes used to produce catchlights in the subject's eyes.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Obie, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Named after the actress Merle Oberon, whose husband Lucien Ballard used this kind of lighting to hide small scars on her face after a car accident. The correct English form is Obie, spelled O-B-I-E.
Definition
- 1A small lamp positioned over the camera, sometimes used to produce catchlights in the subject's eyes.
Etymology
Named after the actress Merle Oberon, whose husband Lucien Ballard used this kind of lighting to hide small scars on her face after a car accident.
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 “Obie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-B-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.