goby
/ˈɡəʊbi/
"goby" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“goby” is uncommon English (frequency #82,339 among 18,276 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,339
- frequency rank, English
- 18,276
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various small fish from the large family Gobiidae, in which the pelvic fins are fused to form a disc-shaped sucker.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | goby |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡəʊbi/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #82,339 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “goby” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
goby is uncommon English at frequency #82,339 among 18,276 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɡəʊbi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for goby in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin gobius (“gudgeon”), from Ancient Greek κωβιός (kōbiós), a type of small fish, of unknown ultimate origin. See also gudgeon. The correct English form is goby, spelled G-O-B-Y.
Definition
- 1Any of various small fish from the large family Gobiidae, in which the pelvic fins are fused to form a disc-shaped sucker.
- 2A gudgeon, a fish of the subfamily Gobioninae, such as Gobio gobio.
Etymology
From Latin gobius (“gudgeon”), from Ancient Greek κωβιός (kōbiós), a type of small fish, of unknown ultimate origin. See also gudgeon.
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
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Using “goby”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-O-B-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡəʊbi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.