orange
/ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/
"orange" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“orange” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,400 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,400
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis which yields oranges (the fruit).
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 | orange |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,400 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “orange” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for orange is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,400 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for orange, with forms such as "oarnge", "oragne", and "oraneg". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Osage", "oranges", "Oran", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree ▲ Italian melaranciacalq. Old French Orengeinflu. ▲ Old Occitan auranjainflu. Old French pomme d'orenge Old French orenge Middle French orangebor. Middle English orenge English orange Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old Fre… The correct English form is orange, spelled O-R-A-N-G-E.
Definition
- 1An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis which yields oranges (the fruit).
- 2Any round citrus fruit with a yellow-red colour when ripe and a sour-sweet taste; the fruit of the orange tree.
- 3Any round citrus fruit with a yellow-red colour when ripe and a sour-sweet taste; the fruit of the orange tree.
- 4The colour of a ripe fruit of an orange tree, midway between red and yellow.
- 5Various drinks
- 6Various drinks:
- 7Various drinks:
- 8Various drinks:
- 9An orange-coloured roundel.
Etymology
Etymology tree ▲ Italian melaranciacalq. Old French Orengeinflu. ▲ Old Occitan auranjainflu. Old French pomme d'orenge Old French orenge Middle French orangebor. Middle English orenge English orange Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old French pome orenge (“fruit orange”), influenced by the place name Orange (which is from Gaulish and unrelated to the word for the fruit and color) and by Old Occitan auranja and calqued from Old Italian melarancio, melarancia, compound of mela (“apple”) and un'arancia (“an orange”), from Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj), from Early Classical Persian نَارَنْگْ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”), ultimately from Dravidian. Compare Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy), compound of நாரம் (nāram, “water”) and காய் (kāy, “fruit”); also Telugu నారంగము, నారింజ (nāraṅgamu, nāriñja), Malayalam നാരങ്ങ (nāraṅṅa), Kannada ನಾರಂಗಿ (nāraṅgi)). Originally borrowed as the surname (derived from the place name) in the 13th century, before the sense of the fruit was imported in the late 14th century and the color in 1510. In the color sense, largely displaced ġeolurēad, whence yellow-red.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oarnge,oragne,oraneg,orangge,orannge,ornage,orrange,roange
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of orange - 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 “orange”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-R-A-N-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Osage” - see the side-by-side comparison. orange vs Osage
- 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.