gaffe
/ɡæf/
"gaffe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gaffe” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,660 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,660
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public; a social blunder; a breach of etiquette.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gaffe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡæf/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,660 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gaffe” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gaffe is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡæf/. Corpus data places it at rank #43,660 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public; a social blunder; a breach of etiquette.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for gaffe, with forms such as "agffe", "gafe", and "gafef". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "game", "gave", "gaze", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French gaffe (“blunder”). Doublet of gaff. The correct English form is gaffe, spelled G-A-F-F-E.
Definition
- 1A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public; a social blunder; a breach of etiquette.
Etymology
From French gaffe (“blunder”). Doublet of gaff.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: agffe,gafe,gafef,gfafe,ggaffe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gaffe - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “gaffe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-A-F-F-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡæf/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “game” - see the side-by-side comparison. gaffe vs game
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.