goddamvsgoddamnWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: goddam is a noun, goddamn is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“goddam” is a noun and “goddamn” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,160
“goddam” frequency rank
#7,232
“goddamn” frequency rank
49392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goddam goddamn
Definition An English person, from the perspective of a French person or in the context of French history, originating during the Hundred Years' War. An expression of anger, surprise, intense excitement or frustration.

Letter map: goddam vs goddamn

Shared letters muted; letters that set goddam and goddamn apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. goddam runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against goddamn's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
goddam
7 ch
goddamn

Part-of-speech tell for goddam / goddamn

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: goddam is anoun and goddamnanintj. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “goddam” sits inside “goddamn”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goddam is recorded at frequency rank #42,160, classified as anoun. goddamn is at rank #7,232, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˌɡɒdˈdæm/.

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 49392, this pair ranks #184,066 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goddam vs goddamn

Shared letters: adgmo. Private to "goddam": -. Private to "goddamn": n.

"goddam" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "goddamn" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • goddam ← gdodam · ggoddam · godadm · godam · goddamm · goddma · ogddam
  • goddamn ← gdodamn · ggoddamn · godadmn · godamn · goddammn · goddamnn · goddanm · goddman

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "goddam" for "goddamn" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goddam" is a noun and "goddamn" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "goddam" or "goddamn" show up more?
"goddamn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,232 in our English list, against #42,160 for "goddam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "goddam" vs "goddamn" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "goddam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goddamn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,066 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goddam" and "goddamn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goddam vs gundam". 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 #184,066 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