goodevsgoofTell them apart

Quick tell: goode is a adjective, goof is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“goode” is an adjective and “goof” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,067
“goode” frequency rank
#29,294
“goof” frequency rank
59361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goode goof
Definition Obsolete spelling of good. A mistake or error.

Letter map: goode vs goof

Shared letters muted; letters that set goode and goof apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
goode
4 ch
goof

Part-of-speech tell for goode / goof

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: goode is anadjective and goofanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goode is recorded at frequency rank #30,067, classified as anadj. goof is at rank #29,294, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡuːf/.

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 59361, this pair ranks #106,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of goode vs goof

Shared letters: go. Private to "goode": de. Private to "goof": f.

"goode" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "goof" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • goodeggoode · gode · godoe · goodde · gooed · ogode
  • goofggoof · gof · gofo · gooff · ogof

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "goode" and "goof" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "goode" is an adjective and "goof" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "goode" or "goof" show up more?
"goof" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,294 in our English list, against #30,067 for "goode". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "goode" and "goof".

  • Full dictionary entry for "goode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goof" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goode" and "goof" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gogol vs goof". 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 #106,668 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