ost
\ɔst\
The verdict
“ost” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #19,617 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #19,617
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - ou Armée au Moyen Âge.
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 | ost |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔst\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #19,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ost” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ost is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɔst\. Corpus data places it at rank #19,617 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ost, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ou", "ow", "ox", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is ost, spelled O-S-T.
Definition
- 1ou Armée au Moyen Âge.
- 2Troupe mise à disposition par un vassal à son suzerain. Le roi, suzerain suprême, peut lever l'Ost pour affronter une menace extérieure.
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
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Using “ost”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is O-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɔst\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ou” - see the side-by-side comparison. ost vs ou
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.