GoldvsGoneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,083
“Gold” frequency rank
#28,230
“Gone” frequency rank
29313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gold Gone
Definition gelbes, glänzendes, leicht verformbares Metall; das chemische Element mit der Ordnungszahl 79 Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Gon

Where the eye mixes Gold and Gone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Gold
4 ch
Gone

Look-alike desk: Gold vs Gone

A purely visual mix-up. Gold ([ɡɔlt]) and Gone ([ˈɡoːnə]) 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 29313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gold is recorded at frequency rank #1,083, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡɔlt]. Gone is at rank #28,230, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡoːnə].

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 29313, this pair ranks #1,769,140 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gold vs Gone

Shared letters: go. Private to "Gold": dl. Private to "Gone": en.

"Gold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Gone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Goldggold · glod · godl · goldd · golld · ogld
  • Goneggone · gnoe · goen · gonne · ogne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gold" and "Gone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɡɔlt] versus [ˈɡoːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Gold" or "Gone" show up more?
"Gold" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,083 in our German list, against #28,230 for "Gone". 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 "Gold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,769,140 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gold" and "Gone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Goch vs Gone". 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 #1,769,140 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