godsvsGolfWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,572
“gods” frequency rank
#3,740
“Golf” frequency rank
44312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gods Golf
Definition Plural des Substantivs god großer Einschnitt des Meeres ins Festland, Bucht

Where the eye mixes gods and Golf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gods and Golf follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
gods
4 ch
Golf

Why the eye confuses gods with Golf

A purely visual mix-up. gods ([ɡɒdz]) and Golf ([ɡɔlf]) 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 44312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gods is recorded at frequency rank #40,572, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡɒdz]. Golf is at rank #3,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡɔlf].

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 44312, this pair ranks #1,390,297 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gods vs Golf

Shared letters: go. Private to "gods": ds. Private to "Golf": fl.

"gods" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Golf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • godsgdos · ggods · godds · godss · gosd · ogds
  • Golfggolf · glof · gofl · golff · gollf · oglf

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gods" for "Golf" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡɒdz] versus [ɡɔlf]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "gods" or "Golf" show up more?
"Golf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,740 in our German list, against #40,572 for "gods". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Golf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,390,297 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gods" and "Golf" 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

Confusion rank #1,390,297 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list