goesvsGREWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: goes is a verb, GRE is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“goes” is a verb and “GRE” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#606
“goes” frequency rank
#29,675
“GRE” frequency rank
30281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goes GRE
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of go Any edition of the Graduate Record Examination or of any of its Subject Tests.

Letter map: goes vs GRE

Shared letters muted; letters that set goes and GRE apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
goes
3 ch
GRE

Part-of-speech tell for goes / GRE

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: goes is averb and GREanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goes is recorded at frequency rank #606, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡəʊz/. GRE is at rank #29,675, tagged as anoun.

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 30281, this pair ranks #355,895 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goes vs GRE

Shared letters: eg. Private to "goes": os. Private to "GRE": r.

"goes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "GRE" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • goesgeos · ggoes · goess · gose · oges

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "goes" and "GRE" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goes" is a verb and "GRE" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "goes" vs "GRE" - which ranks higher?
"goes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our English list, against #29,675 for "GRE". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "goes" and "GRE".

  • Full dictionary entry for "goes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "GRE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,895 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goes" and "GRE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gere vs GRE". 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 #355,895 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