old woman

noun

"old-woman" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“old woman” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An elderly woman.

Key facts for old woman
PropertyValue
Headwordold woman
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “old woman” sits in English frequency

old woman falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for old woman is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for old woman, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is old woman, spelled O-L-D- -W-O-M-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    An elderly woman.
  2. 2
    A person (irrespective of age or sex) who is always complaining about his or her situation.
  3. 3
    One's wife.
  4. 4
    One's mother.
  5. 5
    The plant sea wormwood.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 woman"?
"old woman" is spelled O-L-D- -W-O-M-A-N.
What does "old woman" mean?
As a noun, "old woman" means: An elderly woman.
What language does "old woman" come from?
"old woman" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “old woman”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is O-L-D- -W-O-M-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list