octopus
/ˈɑktəpʊs/noun, verb
octopus is spelled O-C-T-O-P-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is octapus: about 250 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 79 of all searches for the word. Octopus is a noun meaning “Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone…”. The plural of octopus is octopuses; Wiktionary also lists octopusses (nonstandard), octopi (hypercorrect), octopii (hypercorrect).
How many letters and syllables are in octopus?
| Letters | 7: O-C-T-O-P-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, octapus, about 250 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 octopus?
Octopus is spelled O-C-T-O-P-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 79 of the searches for octopus 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 octopus?
Octopus appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th 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 octopus?
- UK /ˈɒktəpʊs/
- UK /ˈɒktəpəs/
- US /ˈɑktəpʊs/
Octopus has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-octopus.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of octopus
- octopuses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- octopi hypercorrect, plural
- octopii hypercorrect, plural, rare
- octopodes plural, rare
- octopusses present, singular, he/she/it
- octopussing participle, present
- octopusing participle, present
- octopussed participle, past
- octopused participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does octopus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers.
- 2
A mollusc from genus Octopus.
- 3
The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.
- 4
An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.
- 5
informalAn instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.
- 6
A safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.
verb
- 1
To put (or attempt to put) one's fingers, hands or arms in many things or places at roughly the same time.
- 2
To spread out in long arms or legs in many directions.
- 3
To plug a large number of devices into a single electric outlet.
- 4
To grow in use vastly beyond what was originally intended.
- 5
To hunt and catch octopuses.
- 6
To behave like an octopus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Octopus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense mollusc:
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 octopus come from?
Borrowed from Latin octōpūs, from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous), from ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”) + πούς (poús, “foot”). Piecewise doublet of octopod and octopede.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).