GMO

adj

"gmo" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“GMO” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #20,935) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#20,935
frequency rank, English
2,313
“G” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Genetically modified.

Corpus desk

Index EN-gmo · GMO · English

GMO · rank #20,935 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,935
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,313
  • PHOTO-FINISH Gillespie

Nearest frequency peer: Gillespie (-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.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “GMO”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “GMO” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

GMO vs go
0% similar
GMO vs GP
33% similar
GMO vs GS
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for GMO
PropertyValue
HeadwordGMO
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters3
Frequency rank#20,935
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “GMO”

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).GMOlands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “Gillespie” (#20,934), “Goldstein” (#20,936), “giggling” (#20,933). Among 2,313 “G” headwords, “GMO” is #20,935. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for GMO is neighbouring look-alikes ("go", "GP", …), not just typos; it is anadjective. Frequency #20,935 among 2,313 “G” headwords. Gloss: "Genetically modified.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for GMO, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "go", "GP", "GS", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is GMO, spelled G-M-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Genetically modified.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. About 93 percent of the soybeans grown in the United States are GMO.
  2. Since 85 to 95% of these crops are GMO, it is safe to assume – unless provided proper certification – that “normal” dairy products contain GMO ingredients in one form or another.

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 "GMO"?
"GMO" is spelled G-M-O.
What does "GMO" mean?
As an adjective, "GMO" means: Genetically modified.
What words are commonly confused with "GMO"?
"GMO" is commonly confused with "go", "GP", "GS". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "GMO" come from?
"GMO" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "GMO", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list