obligé

adj

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

The verdict

“obligé” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,780. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,780
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-oblige · obligé · French

obligé · rank #1,780 · 9 variants · 13 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,780
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH mondial

Nearest frequency peer: mondial (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « obligé »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « obligé » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

obligé vs olive
50% similar
obligé vs oublie
50% similar
obligé vs online
50% similar

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

Key facts for obligé
PropertyValue
Headwordobligé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,780
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « obligé »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).obligése place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « mondial » (#1,779), « patrimoine » (#1,781), « minute » (#1,778). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « obligé » est au #1,780. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around obligé, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,780 among 1,642 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for obligé, with forms such as "boligé", "obbligé", and "obilgé". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "olive", "oublie", "online", 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 pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is obligé, spelled O-B-L-I-G-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire.
  2. 2
    Redevable.
  3. 3
    Contraint.
  4. 4
    Qualifie la partie qu'on ne pourrait retrancher sans gâter l'harmonie et surtout sans détruire le chant.
  5. 5
    Qualifie un récitatif accompagné et coupé par les instruments ; par opposition à celui qui n'est accompagné que de simples accords de piano et de basse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le matin était consacré à des courses à travers la ville, à quelque promenade à l’Alhambra ou au Généralife, et ensuite à la visite obligée aux dames chez qui nous avions passé la soirée.
  2. Ainsi la télévision publique est-elle un thème de débat, une posture obligée, une rhétorique de salon qui mériterait de figurer dans les mythologies des couches cultivées.

Synonyms

obligatoire

Antonyms

ad libitum

This word in other languages

obliged(English)obrigado(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • boligé
  • obbligé
  • obilgé
  • oblgié
  • oblige
  • obliggé
  • obliég
  • oblligé
  • olbigé

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of obligé - 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.

boligé2obbligé1obilgé2oblgié2oblige1obliggé1obliég2oblligé1
Edit distance from "obligé"

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "obligé"?
"obligé" is spelled O-B-L-I-G-É.
What does "obligé" mean?
As an adjective, "obligé" means: Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire.
What words are commonly confused with "obligé"?
"obligé" is commonly confused with "olive", "oublie", "online". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "obligé" come from?
"obligé" is a French 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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

minute#1,778pensez#1,782jardin#1,774séance#1,789

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

indique9 variantsfleurs9 variantsThomas9 variantscartes9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list