opprobrium
/əˈpɹəʊ.bɹɪ.əm/
"opprobrium" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“opprobrium” is an uncommon English word, ranked #83,576 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #83,576
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A cause, object, or situation of disgrace or shame.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | opprobrium |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈpɹəʊ.bɹɪ.əm/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #83,576 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “opprobrium” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for opprobrium is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɹəʊ.bɹɪ.əm/. Corpus data places it at rank #83,576 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.
No generated misspelling entries exist for opprobrium in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Latin opprobrium, obprobrium (“a reproach, a taunt; disgrace, shame; dishonour; scandal”, noun), from opprobrō, obprobrō (“to reproach, upbraid; to taunt”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Opprobrō, obprobrō ar… The correct English form is opprobrium, spelled O-P-P-R-O-B-R-I-U-M.
Definition
- 1A cause, object, or situation of disgrace or shame.
- 2Disgrace or bad reputation arising from exceedingly shameful behaviour; ignominy.
- 3Scornful contempt or reproach; (countable) an instance of this.
- 4Behaviour which is disgraceful or shameful.
Etymology
PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Latin opprobrium, obprobrium (“a reproach, a taunt; disgrace, shame; dishonour; scandal”, noun), from opprobrō, obprobrō (“to reproach, upbraid; to taunt”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Opprobrō, obprobrō are derived from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + probrum (“disgrace, shame; abuse, insult”, noun) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward; toward”) + *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”), in the sense of something brought up to reproach a person). The plural form opprobria is borrowed from Latin opprobria. Cognates * French opprobre * Italian obbrobrio * Portuguese ouprobio (obsolete), opróbrio * Spanish oprobrio (obsolete), oprobio
This word in other languages
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 “opprobrium”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-P-P-R-O-B-R-I-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈpɹəʊ.bɹɪ.əm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.