go astray
"go-astray" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“go astray” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To develop bad habits; to behave improperly or illegally.
Corpus desk
Index EN-go-astray · go astray · English
go astray · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" 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 | go astray |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “go astray” in English
Rare enough to double-check
go astray is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for go astray in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is go astray, spelled G-O- -A-S-T-R-A-Y.
Definition
- 1To develop bad habits; to behave improperly or illegally.
- 2To behave in an adulterous manner.
- 3To come to believe an untruth.
- 4To become lost or mislaid.
- 5To be undesirable or unhelpful.
- 6Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, astray.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how go astray appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If you keep hanging out with that gang you'll go astray.
The woman thought her husband had gone astray.
This word in other languages
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.