Countries That Start With O

Sovereign country (1)

Exactly one sovereign UN member state has an English name beginning with O: the Sultanate of Oman. There are no current territories or dependencies starting with O, but a couple of historical entities do — listed below for completeness.

The shortage of "O countries" is mostly an accident of English transliteration. Oman in Arabic is عُمَان, beginning with the letter ʿayn — a sound English does not have, conventionally written as O.

Oman

Muscat · Middle East

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Territories and other entities

No current territories or dependencies start with the letter O.

Related letter lookups

Browsing the alphabet is a popular way to teach geography. Try the neighbouring letters:

• Countries That Start With N — Eight nations, from Namibia to North Macedonia.
• Countries That Start With P — Thirteen nations including Pakistan, Peru, and Poland.
• Countries That Start With Q — Just one (Qatar), like O.

Quick answer for skimmers

Q: How many countries start with O?
A: One sovereign country — Oman.

Q: What about Outer Mongolia?
A: Now called Mongolia. The country dropped the "Outer" qualifier when its name was modernized in English usage.

Q: Why are there so few?
A: An accident of English transliteration. Oman’s Arabic name does not begin with anything resembling O — it begins with the letter ʿayn, a guttural Arabic consonant that has no English equivalent.

Country profiles mentioned in this post:

Oman Mongolia