obnoxious
ob·noxi·ous/əbˈnɑkʃəs/adjective
obnoxious is spelled O-B-N-O-X-I-O-U-S, 3 syllables: ob·noxi·ous. The wrong spelling people search most is abnoxious: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 42 of all searches for the word. Obnoxious is an adjective meaning “Extremely offensive or unpleasant; very annoying, contemptible, or odious”.
How many letters and syllables are in obnoxious?
| Letters | 9: O-B-N-O-X-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ob·noxi·ous |
| In writing | 2.4 times per million words; the 17,587th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, abnoxious, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell obnoxious?
Obnoxious is spelled O-B-N-O-X-I-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 42 of the searches for obnoxious in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is obnoxious?
Obnoxious appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce obnoxious?
- UK /əbˈnɒkʃəs/
- UK /ɒb-/
- US /əbˈnɑkʃəs/
Obnoxious has 3 syllables, split ob·noxi·ous in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-obnoxious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with obnoxious?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as obnoxious from its last stressed vowel (/ɑkʃəs/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of obnoxious
- more obnoxious comparative
- most obnoxious superlative
- obnoctious
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does obnoxious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Extremely offensive or unpleasant; very annoying, contemptible, or odious.
Throwing stones at the bus is another example of your obnoxious behaviour.
- 2
Unjustly disagreeable, argumentative or objectionable; brazenly rude.
He was an especially obnoxious and detestable specimen of a man.
- 3
archaicobsoleteExposed or vulnerable to something, especially harm or injury.
- 4
obsoleteCausing harm or injury; harmful, hurtful, injurious.
- 5
obsoleteDeserving of blame or punishment; blameworthy, guilty.
- 6
obsoleteUnder the authority or power of someone; subject, subordinate; hence, deferential, submissive, subservient.
- 7
obsoleteFollowed by to: likely to do something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Obnoxious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense extremely offensive or unpleasant; very annoying, contemptible, or odious:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | désagréable, exécrable, odieux |
| German | abscheulich, anstößig, sekkant, unausstehlich, unerträglich, widerlich |
| Portuguese | obnóxio, desagradável, engraçadinho, insuportável |
| Spanish | obnoxio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does obnoxious come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin obnoxiōsus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).