odd
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "odd", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "odd" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "odd" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
odd is anEnglishadj. It means: Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected. Pronounced /ɒd/. It ranks #3,515 in English word frequency. Often confused with of and on.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | odd |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ɒd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #3,515 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for odd is 3 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɒd/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,515 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for odd in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "of", "on", "or", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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- (“t… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is odd, spelled O-D-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.
- 2Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.
- 3Without a corresponding mate in a pair or set; unmatched; (of a pair or set) mismatched.
- 4Left over, remaining after the rest have been paired or grouped.
- 5Left over or remaining (as a small amount) after counting, payment, etc.
- 6Scattered; occasional, infrequent; not forming part of a set or pattern.
- 7Not regular or planned.
- 8Used or employed for odd jobs.
- 9Numerically indivisible by two.
- 10Numbered with an odd number.
- 11About, approximately; somewhat more than (an approximated round number).
- 12Out of the way, secluded.
- 13On the left.
- 14Singular in excellence; matchless; peerless; outstanding.
Etymology
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”). Cognate to Icelandic oddi (“triangle, point of land, odd number”), Swedish udda (“odd”), udd (“a point”), Danish od (“point of weapon””) and odde (“a headland, point”), Norwegian Bokmål odde (“a point”, “odd”, “peculiar”); related to Old English ord (“a point”). Doublet of ord ("point").
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #3,515 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: