ou
/ˈəʊ.uː/
"ou" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ou” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #10,099) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #10,099
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A probably extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, Psittirostra psittacea.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ou · ou · English
ou · rank #10,099 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #10,099
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH offspring
Nearest frequency peer: offspring (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ou”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- occurrence
occurrence
89,904 corpus weight
- offspring
offspring
89,903 corpus weight
- ou
ou
89,902 corpus weight
- outrageous
outrageous
89,901 corpus weight
- packet
packet
89,900 corpus weight
- pads
pads
89,899 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ou” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | ou |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈəʊ.uː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #10,099 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ou” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ou is neighbouring look-alikes ("oz", "ow", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈəʊ.uː/. Frequency #10,099 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Gloss: "A probably extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, Psittirostra psittacea.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ou, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oz", "ow", "ox", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Hawaiian ʻōʻū. The correct English form is ou, spelled O-U.
Definition
- 1A probably extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, Psittirostra psittacea.
Etymology
From Hawaiian ʻōʻū.
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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What to do next
You've looked up "ou". Here's where to go from here.
- "ou" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "oz". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #10,099 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "O" letter cohort. O–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.