Which to use
“gong” is a noun and “good” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,033
- “gong” frequency rank
- #78
- “good” frequency rank
- 16111
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gong | good |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A percussion instrument consisting of a metal disk that emits a loud resonant sound when struck with a soft hammer. | Of a person or an animal: |
Where the eye mixes gong and good
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gong is /ɡɒŋ/ while good is /ɡʊd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16111, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gong is recorded at frequency rank #16,033, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɒŋ/. good is at rank #78, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɡʊd/.
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 16111, this pair ranks #459,834 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of gong vs good
Shared letters: go. Private to "gong": n. Private to "good": d.
"gong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "good" · 4 letters · shape CVVC