ostensible
/ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/
"ostensible" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ostensible” is an uncommon English word, ranked #53,151 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #53,151
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Apparent, evident; meant for open display.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ostensible |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #53,151 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ostensible” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ostensible is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #53,151 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 edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ostensible, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French ostensible, formed with the suffix -ible, from Latin ostensus, the past participle of ostendō (“show”), itself from obs- (“in front of”) (akin to ob- (“in the way”)) + tendō (“stretch”) (akin to Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō)). Cf. also Me… The correct English form is ostensible, spelled O-S-T-E-N-S-I-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Apparent, evident; meant for open display.
- 2Appearing as such; being such in appearance; professed, supposed (rather than demonstrably true or real).
Etymology
Borrowed from French ostensible, formed with the suffix -ible, from Latin ostensus, the past participle of ostendō (“show”), itself from obs- (“in front of”) (akin to ob- (“in the way”)) + tendō (“stretch”) (akin to Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō)). Cf. also Medieval Latin ostensibilis.
Antonyms
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 “ostensible”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-S-T-E-N-S-I-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/ (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.