gobvsgrogWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“gob” and “grog” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,647
“gob” frequency rank
#44,236
“grog” frequency rank
85883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gob grog
Definition A lump of soft or sticky material. An alcoholic beverage made with rum and water, especially that once issued to sailors of the Royal Navy.

Where the eye mixes gob and grog

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gob runs 3 letters (CVC) against grog's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gob
4 ch
grog

Look-alike desk: gob vs grog

A purely visual mix-up. gob (/ɡɒb/) and grog (/ɡɹɒɡ/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gob is recorded at frequency rank #41,647, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɒb/. grog is at rank #44,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɒɡ/.

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 85883, this pair ranks #9,706 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gob vs grog

Shared letters: go. Private to "gob": b. Private to "grog": r.

"gob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "grog" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grog ← ggrog · gorg · grgo · grogg · grrog · rgog

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gob" for "grog" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɒb/ versus /ɡɹɒɡ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gob" or "grog"?
"gob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,647 in our English list, against #44,236 for "grog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,706 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gob" and "grog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grog vs gronk". 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 #9,706 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list