ooze
/uːz/
"ooze" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ooze” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,125 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #37,125
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tanning liquor, an aqueous extract of vegetable matter (tanbark, sumac, etc.) in a tanning vat used to tan leather.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ooze |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /uːz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #37,125 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ooze” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ooze is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /uːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,125 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for ooze, with forms such as "ooez", "oozze", and "oze". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oz", "owe", "ore", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: * (Noun) Middle English wose (“sap”), from Old English wōs (“sap, froth”), from Proto-Germanic *wōsą, from Proto-Indo-European *wóseh₂ (“sap”) (cf. Sanskrit वसा (vásā, “fat”)). Cognate to Middle Low German wose (“scum”), Old High German wasal (“rain”), Old … The correct English form is ooze, spelled O-O-Z-E.
Definition
- 1Tanning liquor, an aqueous extract of vegetable matter (tanbark, sumac, etc.) in a tanning vat used to tan leather.
- 2An oozing, gentle flowing, or seepage, as of water through sand or earth.
- 3Secretion, humour.
- 4Juice, sap.
Etymology
* (Noun) Middle English wose (“sap”), from Old English wōs (“sap, froth”), from Proto-Germanic *wōsą, from Proto-Indo-European *wóseh₂ (“sap”) (cf. Sanskrit वसा (vásā, “fat”)). Cognate to Middle Low German wose (“scum”), Old High German wasal (“rain”), Old Swedish os, oos, ooss, Swedish os. Compare Old Swedish os, oos, Swedish os, Danish os, Norwegian os (“fumes, vapors, reeking, fug”). * (Verb) Middle English wosen, from Old English wōsan; see above. Compare Swedish osa (“ooze”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ooez,oozze,oze,ozoe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ooze - 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.
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 “ooze”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-O-Z-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /uːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “oz” - see the side-by-side comparison. ooze vs oz
- 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.