openness

noun

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

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

The verdict

“openness” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,195. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#17,195
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Accommodating attitude or opinion, as in receptivity to new ideas, behaviors, cultures, peoples, environments, experiences, etc., different from the familiar, conventional, traditional, or one's own.

Corpus desk

Index EN-openness · openness · English

openness · rank #17,195 · 8 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #17,195
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH ominous

Nearest frequency peer: ominous (-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 “openness”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “openness” 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).

openness vs oneness
75% similar

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

Key facts for openness
PropertyValue
Headwordopenness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#17,195
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “openness”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).opennesslands 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 “ominous” (#17,194), “oats” (#17,193), “overheard” (#17,197). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “openness” is #17,195. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around openness, anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,195 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for openness, with forms such as "oepnness", "openenss", and "openess". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "oneness", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *opennesse, from Old English openness (“openness, publicity”), equivalent to open + -ness. Cognate with Old High German offannussi (“disclosure, revelation, openness”). The correct English form is openness, spelled O-P-E-N-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Accommodating attitude or opinion, as in receptivity to new ideas, behaviors, cultures, peoples, environments, experiences, etc., different from the familiar, conventional, traditional, or one's own.
  2. 2
    The degree to which a person, group, organization, institution, or society exhibits this liberal attitude or opinion.
  3. 3
    Lack of secrecy; candour, transparency.
  4. 4
    The degree of accessibility to view, use, and modify in a shared environment with legal rights generally held in common and preventing proprietary restrictions on the right of others to continue viewing, using, modifying and sharing.
  5. 5
    The degree to which a system operates with distinct boundaries across which exchange occurs capable of inducing change in the system while maintaining the boundaries themselves.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Francis riled conservative cardinals with his compassion for migrants and refugees, openness towards LGBTQ+ Catholics and demands for action on the climate crisis.
  2. "Instead of openness, there was the cunning tactics of cover-up and a complete failure by General De Chastelain to deal with the vital numerics of decommissioning," said Ian Paisley, 79, the Protestant preacher who heads the Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland's largest party.

Etymology

From Middle English *opennesse, from Old English openness (“openness, publicity”), equivalent to open + -ness. Cognate with Old High German offannussi (“disclosure, revelation, openness”).

Synonyms

open-mindednessapproachability

This word in other languages

apertura(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oepnness
  • openenss
  • openess
  • opennes
  • opennses
  • opneness
  • oppenness
  • poenness

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of openness - 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.

oepnness2openenss2openess1opennes1opennses2opneness2oppenness1poenness2
Edit distance from "openness"

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 "openness"?
"openness" is spelled O-P-E-N-N-E-S-S.
What does "openness" mean?
As a noun, "openness" means: Accommodating attitude or opinion, as in receptivity to new ideas, behaviors, cultures, peoples, environments, experiences, etc., different from the familiar, conventional, traditional, or one's own.
What words are commonly confused with "openness"?
"openness" is commonly confused with "oneness". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "openness"?
From Middle English *opennesse, from Old English openness (“openness, publicity”), equivalent to open + -ness. Cognate with Old High German offannussi (“disclosure, revelation, openness”). 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 "openness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

newcomer#17,190panicked#17,201playable#17,208leftover#17,174

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

malibu8 variantsSahara8 variantssherry8 variantsFelipe8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list