ould
/aʊld/
"ould" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ould” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #48,397 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #48,397
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pronunciation spelling of old.
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 | ould |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /aʊld/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #48,397 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ould” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ould is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /aʊld/. Corpus data places it at rank #48,397 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Pronunciation spelling of old.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for ould, with forms such as "oudl", "ouldd", and "oulld". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "out", "our", "owl", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Dialectal pronunciation of old, preserving 17th-century English. The correct English form is ould, spelled O-U-L-D.
Definition
- 1Pronunciation spelling of old.
Etymology
Dialectal pronunciation of old, preserving 17th-century English.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oudl,ouldd,oulld,uold
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ould - 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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Using “ould”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-U-L-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /aʊld/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “out” - see the side-by-side comparison. ould vs out
- 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.