oso
[ˈoso]
The verdict
“oso” is a regularly-used Spanish word, ranked #5,644 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,644
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Nombre común de los mamíferos carnívoros de la familia úrsidos que incluye géneros Ursus, Thalarctos y Tremarctos entre otros. Son de tamaño considerable, de cabeza voluminosa, ojos pequeños y orej...
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 | oso |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈoso] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “oso” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for oso is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈoso]. Corpus data places it at rank #5,644 in overall Spanish word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for oso in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oz", "ou", "ot", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is oso, spelled O-S-O.
Definition
- 1Nombre común de los mamíferos carnívoros de la familia úrsidos que incluye géneros Ursus, Thalarctos y Tremarctos entre otros. Son de tamaño considerable, de cabeza voluminosa, ojos pequeños y orejas mas o menos cortas y redondeadas. Tronco tosco, patas cortas y robustas, pies con uñas no retráctiles. Son omnívoros y grandes marchadores. Actualmente los osos se hallan en algunas zonas de Europa, Asia y América; no se encuentran en África, Australia y la Antártida.
- 2En sentido figurado, hombre homosexual masculino, corpulento y con abundante vello, lo que permite parecerse a un oso₂.
- 3Situación o experiencia ridícula o embarazosa.
- 4Persona encargada de cuidar y velar por la seguridad de un político, artista o persona que paga por este servicio.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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
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Using “oso”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is O-S-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈoso] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “oz” - see the side-by-side comparison. oso vs oz
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish 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.