ola

[ˈola]

/[ˈola]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ola” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,811) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,811
frequency rank, Spanish
1,467
“O” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ondas que se desplazan por la superficie de cursos de agua, puestas en marcha por el viento, y son el principal agente de modelado de las costas.

Corpus desk

Index ES-ola · ola · Spanish

ola · rank #4,811 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,811
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,467
  • PHOTO-FINISH operativo

Nearest frequency peer: operativo (+1 rank slots)

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.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “ola”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “ola” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ola vs os
33% similar
ola vs on
33% similar
ola vs or
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ola
PropertyValue
Headwordola
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈola]
Letters3
Frequency rank#4,811
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “ola”

Esta escala corre desde el núcleo del español cotidiano (izquierda) hasta el rastro de formas rara vez usadas (derecha).olacae aquí:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

El eje es logarítmico: cada tick marca unas diez veces menos frecuencia. En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “operativo” (#4,812), “músicos” (#4,809), “oral” (#4,813). Entre 1,467 lemas con “O”, “ola” va en #4,811. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ola is neighbouring look-alikes ("os", "on", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈola]. Frequency #4,811 among 1,467 “O” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ola, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "os", "on", "or", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Spanish form is ola, spelled O-L-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ondas que se desplazan por la superficie de cursos de agua, puestas en marcha por el viento, y son el principal agente de modelado de las costas.
  2. 2
    Cambio brusco de temperatura u otro fenómeno.
  3. 3
    Aparición inesperada de gran cantidad de eventos similares.
  4. 4
    Gran concentración de gente intentando moverse nerviosamente.
  5. 5
    Acción lúdica efectuada por un grupo muy numeroso de personas en que se levantan los dos brazos en una secuencia coordinada para producir un efecto visual semejante al de una ola₁.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ola appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Con la misma ola vinieron a dar en la misma roca dos ostras, hijas de la misma madre, bien iguales al parecer, y se arreglaron lo mejor posible, pegándose en la piedra para vivir allí.
  2. Una ola de frío glacial que entró por los cristales de la guardilla despabiló a la mujer y renovó sus sufrimientos.

Synonyms

oleadaoleada

This word in other languages

wave(English)vague(Français)Welle(Deutsch)onda(Português)

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ola"?
"ola" is spelled O-L-A. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈola].
What does "ola" mean?
As a noun, "ola" means: Ondas que se desplazan por la superficie de cursos de agua, puestas en marcha por el viento, y son el principal agente de modelado de las costas.
What words are commonly confused with "ola"?
"ola" is commonly confused with "os", "on", "or". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ola"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ola" is [ˈola]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ola" come from?
"ola" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ola", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bus#4,683ADN#4,965com#4,982Eva#5,002

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list