onion

/ˈʌn.jən/

//ˈʌn.jən// noun

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

"onion" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“onion” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,464. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,464
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
14
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.

Corpus desk

Index EN-onion · onion · English

onion · rank #8,464 · 6 variants · 14 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,464
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 14 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH ObamaCare

Nearest frequency peer: ObamaCare (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “onion”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “onion” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

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).

onion vs ono
60% similar
onion vs onto
60% similar
onion vs Oxon
40% similar

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

Key facts for onion
PropertyValue
Headwordonion
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈʌn.jən/
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,464
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs14
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “onion”

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).onionlands here:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “ObamaCare” (#8,463), “nursery” (#8,462), “Peru” (#8,466). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “onion” is #8,464. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around onion (IPA /ˈʌn.jən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,464 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for onion, with forms such as "noion", "oinon", and "onino". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "ono", "onto", "Oxon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Also displaced Middle English k… The correct English form is onion, spelled O-N-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
  2. 2
    The bulb of such a plant.
  3. 3
    Any of various plants, mostly of the genus Allium, that are more or less similar to Allium cepa.
  4. 4
    Of a drug, an ounce.
  5. 5
    A ball.
  6. 6
    A watch-seal.
  7. 7
    Alternative letter-case form of Onion (“an inhabitant of Bermuda; a Bermudian”).
  8. 8
    Soy, particularly when used in compound words related to the soy boy stereotype.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Some of the weeds that cause an undesirable flavor in milk are: onion, tarweed, scaleweed, garlic, mustard, pepper grass.
  2. To get started, how about creating an edible window box? Sowed in the spring, salad seeds like radish, lettuce and spring onion will germinate so quickly that you'll be harvesting a crop in a month or two.

Etymology

From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Also displaced Middle English knelek (literally “knee-leek”) and the inherited term ramsons. * (soy): Stems from a 4chan word filter which changes the word soy to onions. The word filter was implemented in relation to the "alpha onion eater" meme, which is depicted as the direct opposite of the soy boy.

Synonyms

violet

This word in other languages

cebolla(Español)oignon(Français)Zwiebel(Deutsch)cebola(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • noion
  • oinon
  • onino
  • onionn
  • onnion
  • onoin

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of onion - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

noion2oinon2onino2onionn1onnion1onoin2
Edit distance from "onion"

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 "onion"?
"onion" is spelled O-N-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈʌn.jən/.
What does "onion" mean?
As a noun, "onion" means: A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
What words are commonly confused with "onion"?
"onion" is commonly confused with "ono", "onto", "Oxon". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "onion"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "onion" is /ˈʌn.jən/. 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 "onion"?
From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Also displaced Middle... 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 "onion", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mommy#8,456midst#8,453rogue#8,479Lanka#8,447

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

jenny6 variantstens6 variantstomb6 variantstrim6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list