octopuses

noun

"octopuses" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“octopuses” is uncommon English (frequency #57,609 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,609
frequency rank, English
15,494
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - plural of octopus

Key facts for octopuses
PropertyValue
Headwordoctopuses
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#57,609
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “octopuses” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). octopuses lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

octopuses is uncommon English at frequency #57,609 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "plural of octopus".

No generated misspelling entries exist for octopuses in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is octopuses, spelled O-C-T-O-P-U-S-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of octopus

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 "octopuses"?
"octopuses" is spelled O-C-T-O-P-U-S-E-S.
What does "octopuses" mean?
As a noun, "octopuses" means: plural of octopus
What language does "octopuses" come from?
"octopuses" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “octopuses”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is O-C-T-O-P-U-S-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list