Ordway

name

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

"ordway" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Ordway” is uncommon English (frequency #78,899 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,899
frequency rank, English
15,494
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname from Old English.

Key facts for Ordway
PropertyValue
HeadwordOrdway
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters6
Frequency rank#78,899
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Ordway” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). Ordway lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Ordway is uncommon English at frequency #78,899 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Ordway doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From the Old English personal name Ordwīġ, which is composed of the elements ord (“point of a spear”) and wīġ (“war, battle”). The correct English form is Ordway, spelled O-R-D-W-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A surname from Old English.
  2. 2
    A statutory town, the county seat of Crowley County, Colorado, United States.
  3. 3
    An unincorporated community in Brown County, South Dakota, United States.

Etymology

From the Old English personal name Ordwīġ, which is composed of the elements ord (“point of a spear”) and wīġ (“war, battle”).

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 "Ordway"?
"Ordway" is spelled O-R-D-W-A-Y.
What does "Ordway" mean?
As a proper noun, "Ordway" means: A surname from Old English.
What is the origin of the word "Ordway"?
From the Old English personal name Ordwīġ, which is composed of the elements ord (“point of a spear”) and wīġ (“war, battle”). 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.

Using “Ordway”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is O-R-D-W-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list