by golly
"by-golly" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“by golly” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A minced oath for by God.
Corpus desk
Index EN-by-golly · by golly · English
by golly · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | by golly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “by golly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
by golly is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A minced oath for by God.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for by golly, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is by golly, spelled B-Y- -G-O-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1A minced oath for by God.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how by golly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
By golly, a fellow ought to have some say-so in the sale of his eggs.
I understand that ministers are hoping to get the Bill on the statute book by the autumn. And by golly, they are in a hurry.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.