GodvsgodsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“God” and “gods” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,503
“God” frequency rank
#40,572
“gods” frequency rank
53075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature God gods
Definition Gott in Sinne des einen monotheistischen Gottes Plural des Substantivs god

Where the eye mixes God and gods

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
God
4 ch
gods

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. God ([ɡɒd]) and gods ([ɡɒdz]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “God” sits inside “gods”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

God is recorded at frequency rank #12,503, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡɒd]. gods is at rank #40,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡɒdz].

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 53075, this pair ranks #1,072,029 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of God vs gods

Shared letters: dgo. Private to "God": -. Private to "gods": s.

"God" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "gods" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • godsgdos · ggods · godds · godss · gosd · ogds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "God" and "gods" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ɡɒd] versus [ɡɒdz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "God" or "gods"?
"God" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,503 in our German list, against #40,572 for "gods". 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 "God" and "gods". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "God" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gods" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,072,029 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "God" and "gods" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Goch vs gods". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list