god
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "god", 3-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 "god" 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 "god" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
god is aEnglishnoun. It means: A deity or supreme being; a supernatural, typically immortal, being with superior powers, to which personhood is attributed. Pronounced /ɡɒd/. It ranks #239 in English word frequency. Often confused with GP and GS.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | god |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡɒd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #239 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for god is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɒd/. Corpus data places it at rank #239 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for god in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "GP", "GS", "GR", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English god, from Old English god, originally neuter, then changed to masculine to reflect the change in religion to Christianity, from Proto-West Germanic *god n, from Proto-Germanic *gudą; see there for further origin. Cognates Cogna… 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 god, spelled G-O-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A deity or supreme being; a supernatural, typically immortal, being with superior powers, to which personhood is attributed.
- 2An idol.
- 3An idol.
- 4A person in a very high position of authority, importance or influence; a powerful ruler or tyrant.
- 5A person who is exceptionally skilled in a particular activity.
- 6An exceedingly handsome man.
- 7The person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English god, from Old English god, originally neuter, then changed to masculine to reflect the change in religion to Christianity, from Proto-West Germanic *god n, from Proto-Germanic *gudą; see there for further origin. Cognates Cognate with Scots God (“God”), Yola God, Gud (“God”), gud (“god”), Saterland Frisian God (“God”), West Frisian God (“God”), god (“deity, god”), Alemannic German, Cimbrian, German, Luxembourgish and Mòcheno Gott (“God”), Central Franconian Jott (“God”), Dutch god (“deity, god”), Limburgish Gód (“God”), gód (“god”), Vilamovian Göt (“God”), Yiddish גאָט (got, “god; God”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish gud (“god; God”), Faroese Gud (“God”), Icelandic goð (“idol, pagan god”), guð, Guð (“God”), Norwegian Nynorsk Gu, Gud (“God”), gu, gud (“god”), Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌸 (guþ, “deity, god; God”). Not related to the word good or Persian خدا (xodâ, “god”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #239 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: