ObvsoxWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Ob is a name, ox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ob” is a name and “ox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,155
“Ob” frequency rank
#40,903
“ox” frequency rank
72058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ob ox
Definition Fleuve de Sibérie, qui se jette dans l’océan Arctique. Bœuf.

Letter map: Ob vs ox

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ob and ox apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
Ob
2 ch
ox

Part-of-speech tell for Ob / ox

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ob is aname and oxanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - b in “Ob” becomes x in “ox”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ob is recorded at frequency rank #31,155, classified as aname. ox is at rank #40,903, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɒks\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 72058, this pair ranks #45,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Ob vs ox

Shared letters: o. Private to "Ob": b. Private to "ox": x.

"Ob" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ox" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ob" and "ox" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ob" is a name and "ox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ob" or "ox"?
"Ob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,155 in our French list, against #40,903 for "ox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Ob" and "ox". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ob" and "ox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs ox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #45,372 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list