outplay
/aʊtˈpleɪ/
"outplay" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“outplay” is uncommon English (frequency #87,644 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,644
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To excel or defeat in a game; to play better than.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | outplay |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /aʊtˈpleɪ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #87,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “outplay” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
outplay is uncommon English at frequency #87,644 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /aʊtˈpleɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To excel or defeat in a game; to play better than.".
outplay doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From out- + play. The correct English form is outplay, spelled O-U-T-P-L-A-Y.
Definition
- 1To excel or defeat in a game; to play better than.
Etymology
From out- + play.
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 “outplay”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-U-T-P-L-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /aʊtˈpleɪ/ (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
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.