obstacle
ob·sta·cle/ˈɑbstəkəl/noun
obstacle is spelled O-B-S-T-A-C-L-E, 3 syllables: ob·sta·cle. The wrong spelling people search most is obstacal: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 101 of all searches for the word. Obstacle is a noun meaning “Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively”. The plural of obstacle is obstacles.
How many letters and syllables are in obstacle?
| Letters | 8: O-B-S-T-A-C-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ob·sta·cle |
| In writing | 5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, obstacal, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell obstacle?
Obstacle is spelled O-B-S-T-A-C-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 101 of the searches for obstacle 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 obstacle?
Obstacle appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd 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 obstacle?
- UK /ˈɒbstəkəl/
- US /ˈɑbstəkəl/
Obstacle has 3 syllables, split ob·sta·cle in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-obstacle.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of obstacle
- obstacles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does obstacle mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively
A big obstacle to understanding the manual was that it had been poorly translated from the Japanese.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Obstacle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | obstacle |
| German | Hindernis, Hürde |
| Portuguese | obstáculo, estorvo, impedimento, empecilho, obstrução, entrave |
| Spanish | obstáculo, óbice, traba, estorbo, contumeria, pereque |
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 obstacle come from?
From Middle English obstacle, from Old French obstacle, from Latin obstāculum.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).