odd-man
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "odd-man", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "odd-man" 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-man" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
odd man is aEnglishnoun. It means: In a group having an odd number of people, someone with the casting vote; an arbiter. Pronounced /ˈɒd man/.
Compare similar words
See how odd man compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | odd man |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒd man/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for odd man is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɒd man/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for odd man in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From odd + man, probably after a Scandinavian source. Compare Old Norse odda-maðr. 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 man, spelled O-D-D- -M-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1In a group having an odd number of people, someone with the casting vote; an arbiter.
- 2Someone who does odd jobs.
- 3A man who trains in company with a boat's crew, so that he can take the place of anybody who falls ill.
Etymology
From odd + man, probably after a Scandinavian source. Compare Old Norse odda-maðr.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "odd man"?
What does "odd man" mean?
How do you pronounce "odd man"?
What is the origin of the word "odd man"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: