ontop

prep

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

The verdict

“ontop” is uncommon English (frequency #77,978 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,978
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Misspelling of on top.

Corpus desk

Index EN-ontop · ontop · English

ontop · rank #77,978 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,978
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH oopsie

Nearest frequency peer: oopsie (+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.

Long-tail ranks near “ontop”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “ontop” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ontop
PropertyValue
Headwordontop
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPreposition
Letters5
Frequency rank#77,978
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “ontop” in English

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).ontopfalls in this rarity band:

#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. Rare peers in the same band: “oopsie” (#77,979), “operculum” (#77,980), “Oklahoman” (#77,975). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “ontop” is #77,978. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ontop is uncommon English at frequency #77,978 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as apreposition. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for ontop in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is ontop, spelled O-N-T-O-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    Misspelling of on top.
  2. 2
    atop.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. "[…] he wen' t'row da buggah right ovah da cleef too, ontop all da res'."
  2. Senor Poochie at his feet, reclining like a Queen; and Nino eyeing them from ontop the table, her paws resting on an empty plate.

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 "ontop"?
"ontop" is spelled O-N-T-O-P.
What does "ontop" mean?
As a preposition, "ontop" means: Misspelling of on top.
What language does "ontop" come from?
"ontop" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "ontop", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list