obit
/ˈɒbɪt/
"obit" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“obit” is uncommon English (frequency #58,896 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,896
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The death of a person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-obit · obit · English
obit · rank #58,896 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,896
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH O'Mara
Nearest frequency peer: O'Mara (-3 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.
Long-tail ranks near “obit”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- notching
notching
41,112 corpus weight
- O'Mara
O'Mara
41,108 corpus weight
- obit
obit
41,105 corpus weight
- Omani
Omani
41,102 corpus weight
- onna
onna
41,100 corpus weight
- Oppenheim
Oppenheim
41,099 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “obit” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | obit |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒbɪt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #58,896 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “obit” in English
Rare enough to double-check
obit is uncommon English at frequency #58,896 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɒbɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for obit in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Anglo-Norman obit, Middle French obit, and their source, Latin obitus (“going down; death”), from obīre (“to go down, to die”). The correct English form is obit, spelled O-B-I-T.
Definition
- 1The death of a person.
- 2A mass or other service held for the soul of a dead person.
- 3A record of a person's death.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how obit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Medieval wills often contained bequests to pay for the singing of special (non-perpetual) masses on the testator's behalf. These obits, as they were called, combined alms for the poor with masses for the dead.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman obit, Middle French obit, and their source, Latin obitus (“going down; death”), from obīre (“to go down, to die”).
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 "obit", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).