gone
/ɡɔn/adjective, preposition, contraction, verb
gone is spelled G-O-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, gone means “Away, having left” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in gone?
| Letters | 4: G-O-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 148 times per million words; the 697th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gone?
Gone appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gone?
- UK /ɡɒn/
- UK /ɡɔːn/
- US /ɡɔn/
Gone has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gone.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gone?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gone from its last stressed vowel (/ɔn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: geno, geon, oneg.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gone
- further gone comparative
- farther gone comparative
- goner comparative
- furthest gone superlative
- farthest gone superlative
- gonest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gone mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Away, having left.
Are they gone already?
- 2
No longer existing, having passed.
The days of my youth are gone.
- 3
Used up.
I'm afraid all the coffee is gone.
- 4
Broken, failed.
The bulb is gone. Can you put a new one in?
- 5
Dead.
- 6
Doomed, done for.
Have you seen the company's revenue? It's through the floor. They're gone.
- 7
colloquialNot fully aware of one's surroundings, often through intoxication or mental decline.
Don't bother trying to understand what Grandma says; she's gone.
- 8
slangInfatuated; in love (+ on, for, in).
preposition
- 1
UKinformalPast, after, later than (a time).
You'd better hurry up, it's gone four o'clock.
verb
- 1
past participle of go
contraction
- 1
Alternative spelling of gon /gon': clipping of gonna or going to.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gone in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | parti |
| German | weg , vorbei , alle, aufgebraucht |
| Portuguese | ir-se |
| Spanish | ido , (él) se murió, (él) ha muerto, (él) ya no está |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gone come from?
From Middle English gon, igon, gan, ȝegan, from Old English gān, ġegān, from Proto-Germanic *gānaz (“gone”), past participle of *gāną (“to go”). Cognate with West Germanic Scots gane (“gone”), West Frisian gien (“gone”), Low German gahn (“gone”), and Dutch gegaan (“gone”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).