overlain
/oʊ.vɚ.leɪn/
"overlain" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overlain” is uncommon English (frequency #69,312 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,312
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - past participle of overlie
Corpus desk
Index EN-overlain · overlain · English
overlain · rank #69,312 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,312
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 15,494
- PHOTO-FINISH outland
Nearest frequency peer: outland (-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 “overlain”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- optimizer
optimizer
30,695 corpus weight
- Oromo
Oromo
30,691 corpus weight
- outland
outland
30,690 corpus weight
- overlain
overlain
30,689 corpus weight
- padlocks
padlocks
30,686 corpus weight
- parasitism
parasitism
30,684 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “overlain” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | overlain |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /oʊ.vɚ.leɪn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #69,312 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “overlain” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
overlain is uncommon English at frequency #69,312 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /oʊ.vɚ.leɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "past participle of overlie".
No misspelling variants are generated for overlain in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is overlain, spelled O-V-E-R-L-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1past participle of overlie
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "overlain", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency 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.