Gentoo

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"gentoo" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Gentoo” is uncommon English (frequency #61,490 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,490
frequency rank, English
2,313
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A non-Muslim inhabitant of India, a Hindu; specifically, in Southern India, an ethnic-Telugu.

Corpus desk

Index EN-gentoo · Gentoo · English

Gentoo · rank #61,490 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,490
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,313
  • PHOTO-FINISH Geer

Nearest frequency peer: Geer (-1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “Gentoo”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “Gentoo” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Gentoo
PropertyValue
HeadwordGentoo
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#61,490
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Gentoo” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).Gentoofalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Geer” (#61,489), “Georgios” (#61,491), “gayer” (#61,488). Among 2,313 “G” headwords, “Gentoo” is #61,490. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Gentoo is uncommon English at frequency #61,490 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Gentoo doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. 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.

Etymologically, the entry records: Of Anglo-Indian origin (17th century), apparently a borrowing from Portuguese gentio (“heathen”) (compare gentile (“pagan”)). The correct English form is Gentoo, spelled G-E-N-T-O-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    A non-Muslim inhabitant of India, a Hindu; specifically, in Southern India, an ethnic-Telugu.
  2. 2
    The gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), a species of penguin.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Gentoo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The Greeks, and all the Celtic nations, accordingly, burned the bodies of the dead, as the Gentoos do at this day; while the Egyptians, among whom fuel was extremely scarce, placed them in pyramidal monuments, which were the symbols of fire; hence come those prodigious structures which still adorn that country.
  2. 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Spiritual Laws” in Essays (First Series), Boston: James Munroe, p. 133, The poor mind does not seem to itself to be any thing, unless it have an outside badge, — some Gentoo diet, or Quaker coat, or Calvinistic prayer- meeting, or philanthropic society, or a great donation, or a high office, or, any how, some wild contrasting a…

Etymology

Of Anglo-Indian origin (17th century), apparently a borrowing from Portuguese gentio (“heathen”) (compare gentile (“pagan”)).

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

How do you spell "Gentoo"?
"Gentoo" is spelled G-E-N-T-O-O.
What does "Gentoo" mean?
As a noun, "Gentoo" means: A non-Muslim inhabitant of India, a Hindu; specifically, in Southern India, an ethnic-Telugu.
What is the origin of the word "Gentoo"?
Of Anglo-Indian origin (17th century), apparently a borrowing from Portuguese gentio (“heathen”) (compare gentile (“pagan”)). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Gentoo", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

glitzy#61,496grampa#61,501florin#61,474hallow#61,513

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list