Golf or gulf?
golf is a noun meaning “A ball game played by individuals competing against one another in which the…”; gulf is a noun meaning “A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) golf is about 1.9 times as common as gulf.
What is the difference between golf and gulf?
| golf | gulf | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A ball game played by individuals competing against one another in which the object is to hit a ball into each of a series of (usually 18 or nine) holes in the… To play the game of golf To write something in as few characters as possible (e.g. in code golf, regex golf) | A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy To engulf |
| Example | none recorded | the Gulf of Mexico |
| Forms | none | gulfs |
| Pronunciation | /ɡɒlf/ /ɡɒf/ /ɡɑlf/ | /ɡʌlf/ /ɡɒlf/ |
| In writing | 36 times per million words | 19 times per million words |
Sources: golf and gulf in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of golf and gulf
golf
- 1
A ball game played by individuals competing against one another in which the object is to hit a ball into each of a series of (usually 18 or nine) holes in the minimum number of strokes
- 2
To play the game of golf
- 3
Alternative letter-case form of Golf from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet
- 4
To write something in as few characters as possible (e.g. in code golf, regex golf)
gulf
- 1
A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin
- 2
To engulf
- 3
That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy
- 4
To award a degree to somebody who has only just passed sufficiently
- 5
A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially landlocked sea
the Gulf of Mexico
- 6
A large deposit of ore in a lode
- 7
A wide interval or gap; a separating space
- 8
A difference, especially a large difference, between groups
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, golf or gulf?
golf appears 36 times per million words; gulf 19 times per million words.
golf 36 times per million wordsgulf 19 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search golf vs gulf?
“golf vs gulf” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“gulf vs golf”, “golf or gulf”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.