overran
/ˌəʊ.vəˈɹæn/
"overran" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overran” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #41,294 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #41,294
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past of overrun
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 | overran |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˌəʊ.vəˈɹæn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #41,294 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “overran” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for overran is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌəʊ.vəˈɹæn/. Corpus data places it at rank #41,294 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past of overrun".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for overran, with forms such as "oevrran", "overan", and "overarn". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "overrun", "oversaw", "Overton", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is overran, spelled O-V-E-R-R-A-N.
Definition
- 1simple past of overrun
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oevrran,overan,overarn,overrann,overrna,ovreran,ovverran,voerran
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of overran - 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 “overran”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-V-E-R-R-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌəʊ.vəˈɹæn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “overrun” - see the side-by-side comparison. overran vs overrun
- 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.