oligopoly
/ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/
"oligopoly" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“oligopoly” is uncommon English (frequency #66,894 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,894
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | oligopoly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #66,894 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “oligopoly” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
oligopoly is uncommon English at frequency #66,894 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for oligopoly, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *h₃ligos From oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few; several’) + -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly. The correct English form is oligopoly, spelled O-L-I-G-O-P-O-L-Y.
Definition
- 1An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
Etymology
PIE word *h₃ligos From oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few; several’) + -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.
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); 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
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Using “oligopoly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-L-I-G-O-P-O-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.