grovsgroupConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#42,164
“gro” frequency rank
#241
“group” frequency rank
42405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gro group
Definition Disgusting, unpleasant; gross. A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.

Where the eye mixes gro and group

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gro runs 3 letters (CCV) against group's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gro
5 ch
group

Look-alike desk: gro vs group

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gro is /ˈɡrəʊ/ while group is /ɡɹuːp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gro” sits inside “group”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gro is recorded at frequency rank #42,164, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡrəʊ/. group is at rank #241, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹuːp/.

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 42405, this pair ranks #249,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gro vs group

Shared letters: gor. Private to "gro": -. Private to "group": pu.

"gro" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "group" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • group ← ggroup · gorup · gropu · groupp · grroup · gruop · rgoup

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gro" for "group" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gro" is an adjective and "group" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "gro" or "group" show up more?
"group" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #241 in our English list, against #42,164 for "gro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "group" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gro" and "group" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gere vs gro". 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 #249,525 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