opium
/ˈoʊ.pi.əm/
"opium" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“opium” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,875 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,875
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
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 | opium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #15,875 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “opium” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for opium is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,875 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for opium, with forms such as "oipum", "opimu", and "opiumm". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "OPM", "opus", "optimum", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós Ancient Greek ὀπός (opós) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)? Ancient Greek -ῐον (-ĭon) Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. Latin opiumbor. ▲ Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. English opium Borrowed … The correct English form is opium, spelled O-P-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
- 2Anything that numbs or stupefies.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós Ancient Greek ὀπός (opós) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ῐος (-ĭos)? Ancient Greek -ῐον (-ĭon) Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. Latin opiumbor. ▲ Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion)bor. English opium Borrowed from Latin opium and Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion), from ὀπός (opós, “juice of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷós (“juice, resin”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oipum,opimu,opiumm,oppium,opuim,poium
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of opium - 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 “opium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-P-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “OPM” - see the side-by-side comparison. opium vs OPM
- 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.