old lady

noun

"old-lady" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“old lady” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An elderly woman.

Corpus desk

Index EN-old-lady · old lady · English

old lady · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "O" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for old lady
PropertyValue
Headwordold lady
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “old lady” in English

old ladyranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

old lady is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

old lady has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is old lady, spelled O-L-D- -L-A-D-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    An elderly woman.
  2. 2
    One's mother.
  3. 3
    One's girlfriend, wife or female significant other.
  4. 4
    The Bank of England, sometimes referred to as the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” or simply “The Old Lady”.
  5. 5
    A queen.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Near-synonym: LOL
  2. The door was opened by a little old lady.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "old lady"?
"old lady" is spelled O-L-D- -L-A-D-Y.
What does "old lady" mean?
As a noun, "old lady" means: An elderly woman.
What language does "old lady" come from?
"old lady" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list