optvsosaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“opt” and “osa” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,502
“opt” frequency rank
#43,047
“osa” frequency rank
85549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opt osa
Definition Opter. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de oser.

Where the eye mixes opt and osa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. opt (VCC) and osa (VCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
opt
3 ch
osa

Visual trap between opt and osa

A purely visual mix-up. opt (\ɒpt\) and osa (\o.za\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opt is recorded at frequency rank #42,502, classified as averb, pronounced \ɒpt\. osa is at rank #43,047, tagged as averb, pronounced \o.za\.

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 85549, this pair ranks #11,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of opt vs osa

Shared letters: o. Private to "opt": pt. Private to "osa": as.

"opt" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "osa" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "opt" and "osa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɒpt\ versus \o.za\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "opt" vs "osa" - which ranks higher?
"opt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,502 in our French list, against #43,047 for "osa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "opt" and "osa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "opt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "osa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opt" and "osa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs osa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #11,178 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