English Word Reference Free

go-the-extra-mile

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

17 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "go-the-extra-mile", 17-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "go-the-extra-mile" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "go-the-extra-mile" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

go the extra mile is aEnglishverb. It means: To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job. Pronounced /ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/.

Compare similar words

See how go the extra mile compares against similar English words.

Browse all word comparisons →
Key facts for go the extra mile
PropertyValue
Headwordgo the extra mile
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

go the extra mile is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for go the extra mile is 17 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for go the extra mile in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: * Possibly from the gospel of Matthew ch.5: v.41 *: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is go the extra mile, spelled G-O- -T-H-E- -E-X-T-R-A- -M-I-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.

Etymology

* Possibly from the gospel of Matthew ch.5: v.41 *: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "go the extra mile"?
"go the extra mile" is spelled G-O- -T-H-E- -E-X-T-R-A- -M-I-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/.
What does "go the extra mile" mean?
As a verb, "go the extra mile" means: To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.
How do you pronounce "go the extra mile"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "go the extra mile" is /ˈɡəʊ ði ˈɛk.stɹə ˈmaɪl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "go the extra mile"?
* Possibly from the gospel of Matthew ch.5: v.41 *: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.