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PlainSpell

odd

/ɑd/adjective, noun

odd is spelled O-D-D: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Odd, the name). As an adjective, odd means “Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in odd?

Letters3: O-D-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing26 times per million words; the 3,479th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is odd?

Odd appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Odd, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce odd?

  • UK /ɒd/
  • British /ɔd/
  • US /ɑd/

Odd has one syllable (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-odd.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with odd

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

od vs odd0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with odd?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as odd from its last stressed vowel (/ɑd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dod.

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 odd

  • odder comparative
  • oddest superlative
  • odds plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does odd mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.

    She slept in, which was very odd.

  2. 2

    Peculiar, singular and strange in looks or character; eccentric, bizarre.

  3. 3

    Without a corresponding mate in a pair or set; unmatched; (of a pair or set) mismatched.

    Optimistically, he had a corner of a drawer for odd socks.

  4. 4

    Left over, remaining after the rest have been paired or grouped.

    I'm the odd one out.

  5. 5

    Left over or remaining (as a small amount) after counting, payment, etc.

  6. 6

    Scattered; occasional, infrequent; not forming part of a set or pattern.

    I don't speak Latin well, so in hearing a dissertation in Latin, I would only be able to make out the odd word of it.

  7. 7

    Not regular or planned.

    He's only worked odd jobs.

  8. 8

    Used or employed for odd jobs.

noun

  1. 1

    informalSomething left over, not forming part of a set.

    I’ve got three complete sets of these trading cards for sale, plus a few dozen odds.

  2. 2

    An odd number.

    So let’s see. There are two evens here and three odds.

noun

as ODD
  1. 1

    Initialism of oppositional defiant disorder.

  2. 2

    Initialism of optical disc drive.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Odd in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchimpair (not having a mate), bizarre, étrange (strange), à peu près (about)
Germaneinzeln (not having a mate), seltsam, merkwürdig, komisch (strange), ungerade (indivisible by two), gelegentlich (occasional; infrequent)
Portugueseímpar (not having a mate), estranho, raro (strange), aproximadamente (about), ocasional (casual, irregular)
Spanishguacho, desparejado, desemparejado, suelto (not having a mate), extraño, raro (strange)

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 odd come from?

From Middle English odde, od (“odd (not even); leftover after division into pairs”), from Old Norse oddi (“odd, third or additional number; triangle”), from oddr (“point of a weapon”), from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to stick, prick, pierce, sting”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to set, place”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after odd