Which to use
“goode” is an adjective and “gove” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,067
- “goode” frequency rank
- #31,193
- “gove” frequency rank
- 61260
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | goode | gove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of good. | A mow; a rick for hay. |
Letter map: goode vs gove
Shared letters muted; letters that set goode and gove apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. goode runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against gove's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for goode / gove
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: goode is anadjective and goveanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
goode is recorded at frequency rank #30,067, classified as anadj. gove is at rank #31,193, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡəʊv/.
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 61260, this pair ranks #95,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of goode vs gove
Shared letters: ego. Private to "goode": d. Private to "gove": v.
"goode" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "gove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "goode" for "gove" ever safe?
Which is more common, "goode" or "gove"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "goode" and "gove". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "goode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,263 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "goode" and "gove" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gere vs gove". 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 #95,263 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.