gong show
"gong-show" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gong show” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - An event that proves to be a disaster, often in a fun or memorable way.
Corpus desk
Index EN-gong-show · gong show · English
gong show · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | gong show |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “gong show” in English
Rare enough to double-check
gong show is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An event that proves to be a disaster, often in a fun or memorable way.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for gong show, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: After The Gong Show, a televised absurdist amateur talent contest first broadcast in the 1970s. The correct English form is gong show, spelled G-O-N-G- -S-H-O-W.
Definition
- 1An event that proves to be a disaster, often in a fun or memorable way.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gong show appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Last night, we all went drinking, and the whole thing turned into a total gong show.
That biology class was a gong show.
Etymology
After The Gong Show, a televised absurdist amateur talent contest first broadcast in the 1970s.
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.