ohm

/əʊm/

//əʊm// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"ohm" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“ohm” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,649) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#28,649
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In the International System of Units, the derived unit of electrical resistance; the electrical resistance of a device across which a potential difference of one volt causes a current of one ampere.

Corpus desk

Index EN-ohm · ohm · English

ohm · rank #28,649 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,649
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH Oates

Nearest frequency peer: Oates (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “ohm”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “ohm” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ohm vs on
33% similar
ohm vs or
33% similar
ohm vs OK
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ohm
PropertyValue
Headwordohm
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/əʊm/
Letters3
Frequency rank#28,649
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “ohm”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).ohmlands here:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “Oates” (#28,648), “oars” (#28,647), “OOP” (#28,651). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “ohm” is #28,649. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ohm is neighbouring look-alikes ("on", "or", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /əʊm/. Frequency #28,649 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Gloss: "In the International System of Units, the derived unit of electrical resistance; the electrical resistance of a device across which a potential difference of one volt causes a current of one ampere.".

No misspelling variants are generated for ohm in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "on", "or", "OK", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm. A German surname, first recorded in the 12th century, from German Ohm (“uncle”), from Proto-West Germanic *auhaim (“maternal uncle”), from or related to Proto-Germanic *awô (“grandfather, paternal uncle”) + *haimaz … The correct English form is ohm, spelled O-H-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    In the International System of Units, the derived unit of electrical resistance; the electrical resistance of a device across which a potential difference of one volt causes a current of one ampere.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ohm appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. If the volt, ampere and ohm were taken as the absolute units, the practical units would be the ampere, begohm and begavolt, names just as convenient as ampere, coulomb and farad.
  2. As the test light voltage touches terminal "C7", the module should switch, causing the ohmmeter to "overrange" if the meter is in the 1000-2000 ohms position.

Etymology

Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm. A German surname, first recorded in the 12th century, from German Ohm (“uncle”), from Proto-West Germanic *auhaim (“maternal uncle”), from or related to Proto-Germanic *awô (“grandfather, paternal uncle”) + *haimaz (“home”). Doublet of oom and of dialectal eam (“uncle”).

This word in other languages

ohmio(Español)ohm(Français)Ohm(Deutsch)

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 "ohm"?
"ohm" is spelled O-H-M. The IPA pronunciation is /əʊm/.
What does "ohm" mean?
As a noun, "ohm" means: In the International System of Units, the derived unit of electrical resistance; the electrical resistance of a device across which a potential difference of one volt causes a current of one ampere.
What words are commonly confused with "ohm"?
"ohm" is commonly confused with "on", "or", "OK". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ohm"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ohm" is /əʊm/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "ohm"?
Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm. A German surname, first recorded in the 12th century, from German Ohm (“uncle”), from Proto-West Germanic *auhaim (“maternal uncle”), from or related to Proto-Germanic *awô (“grandfather, paternal uncle”) ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ohm", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

OOP#28,651orc#28,653mun#28,631pes#28,668

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list