oboe

/ˈəʊbəʊ/

//ˈəʊbəʊ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"oboe" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“oboe” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #42,302) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#42,302
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.

Corpus desk

Index EN-oboe · oboe · English

oboe · rank #42,302 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #42,302
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH NWO

Nearest frequency peer: NWO (-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 “oboe”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “oboe” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

oboe vs oo
50% similar
oboe vs OE
0% similar
oboe vs one
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for oboe
PropertyValue
Headwordoboe
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈəʊbəʊ/
Letters4
Frequency rank#42,302
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “oboe”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).oboelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “NWO” (#42,301), “ochre” (#42,303), “ogle” (#42,304). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “oboe” is #42,302. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for oboe is neighbouring look-alikes ("oo", "OE", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈəʊbəʊ/. Frequency #42,302 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Gloss: "A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for oboe, with forms such as "booe", "obboe", and "obeo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oo", "OE", "one", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of hau… The correct English form is oboe, spelled O-B-O-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how oboe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Whistles, mirlitons, flutes, trumpets or horns, clarinets, and oboes are all played in one or more parts of the continent.
  2. This does become monstrously antimusical in one scene: when Tchaikovsky’s music, softly depicting the sleeping palace (my favorite passage of this composer’s entire oeuvre, with its beautifully muffled oboe melody suggesting how beauty ripens in sleep like a chrysalis), is turned into an epic battle for the poor passive Prince, conducted between the wicke…

Etymology

An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut (“high, loud, high-pitched”) and bois (“wood, woodwind”).

This word in other languages

oboe(Español)hautbois(Français)Oboe(Deutsch)oboé(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • booe
  • obboe
  • obeo
  • oobe

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of oboe - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

booe2obboe1obeo2oobe2
Edit distance from "oboe"

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

How do you spell "oboe"?
"oboe" is spelled O-B-O-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈəʊbəʊ/.
What does "oboe" mean?
As a noun, "oboe" means: A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.
What words are commonly confused with "oboe"?
"oboe" is commonly confused with "oo", "OE", "one". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "oboe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "oboe" is /ˈəʊbəʊ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "oboe"?
An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word m... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "oboe", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ogle#42,304oppo#42,308Pali#42,319moll#42,278

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list