Ottawa

\ɔ.ta.wa\

/\ɔ.ta.wa\/ name

The verdict

“Ottawa” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,482. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,482
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
6
tracked misspellings

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom de famille.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ottawa · Ottawa · French

Ottawa · rank #5,482 · 6 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,482
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH ordonné

Nearest frequency peer: ordonné (-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 « Ottawa »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « Ottawa » 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
Key facts for Ottawa
PropertyValue
HeadwordOttawa
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\ɔ.ta.wa\
Letters6
Frequency rank#5,482
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « Ottawa »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).Ottawase 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 « ordonné » (#5,481), « pari » (#5,483), « moulin » (#5,480). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « Ottawa » est au #5,482. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around Ottawa (IPA \ɔ.ta.wa\), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #5,482 among 1,642 “O” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Nom de famille.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for Ottawa, with forms such as "otatwa", "otawa", and "ottaaw". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is Ottawa, spelled O-T-T-A-W-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom de famille.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Le directeur, Sakay Ottawa, assure ainsi avoir un nouveau poste d’enseignant et sept nouveaux postes d’intervenants à pourvoir.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • otatwa
  • otawa
  • ottaaw
  • ottawwa
  • ottwaa
  • totawa

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Ottawa - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

otatwa2otawa1ottaaw2ottawwa1ottwaa2totawa2
Edit distance from "Ottawa"

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 "Ottawa"?
"Ottawa" is spelled O-T-T-A-W-A. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔ.ta.wa\.
What does "Ottawa" mean?
As a proper noun, "Ottawa" means: Nom de famille.
What are common misspellings of "Ottawa"?
Common misspellings include "otatwa", "otawa", "ottaaw", "ottawwa", "ottwaa". The correct spelling is "Ottawa".
How do you pronounce "Ottawa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Ottawa" is \ɔ.ta.wa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Ottawa" come from?
"Ottawa" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "Ottawa", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list