ought
/ɔːt/
"ought" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ought” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #3,966. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #3,966
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - simple past of owe
Corpus desk
Index EN-ought · ought · English
ought · rank #3,966 · 7 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #3,966
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH operated
Nearest frequency peer: operated (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “ought”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- movements
movements
96,038 corpus weight
- operated
operated
96,036 corpus weight
- ought
ought
96,035 corpus weight
- outcome
outcome
96,034 corpus weight
- painted
painted
96,033 corpus weight
- poll
poll
96,032 corpus weight
What this shows “ought” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | ought |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɔːt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,966 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “ought”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around ought (IPA /ɔːt/), averb. Corpus frequency is #3,966 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Dominant gloss: "simple past of owe".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for ought, with forms such as "oguht", "ougght", and "oughht". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "out", "oust", "ouch", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe + -t. Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “capable of, liable”). The correct English form is ought, spelled O-U-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1simple past of owe
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ought appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There was a certayne lender / which had two detters / the one ought five hondred pence / and the other fifty.
[…]witneſſe Ariſtippus, who being vrged with the affection he ought his children, as proceeding from his loynes, began to ſpeake and ſpit[…].
Etymology
From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe + -t. Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “capable of, liable”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- oguht
- ougght
- oughht
- oughtt
- ougth
- ouhgt
- uoght
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ought - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ought", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).