good

/ɡʊd/

//ɡʊd// adj

"good" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“good” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #78) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#78
frequency rank, English
2,313
“G” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a person or an animal:

Corpus desk

Index EN-good · good · English

good · rank #78 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #78
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,313
  • PHOTO-FINISH than

Nearest frequency peer: than (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “good”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “good” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

good vs got
50% similar
good vs GOP
0% similar
good vs Guo
25% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for good
PropertyValue
Headwordgood
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ɡʊd/
Letters4
Frequency rank#78
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “good” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).goodlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “than” (#77), “only” (#79), “our” (#76). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for good is neighbouring look-alikes ("got", "GOP", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced /ɡʊd/. Frequency #78 among 2,313 “G” headwords. 29 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for good, with forms such as "ggood", "godo", and "goodd". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "got", "GOP", "Guo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English good, from Old English gōd, from Proto-West Germanic *gōd, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, be associated, suit, fit”). Related to gather and together, but not to god/God. Eclips… The correct English form is good, spelled G-O-O-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Of a person or an animal:
  2. 2
    Of a person or an animal:
  3. 3
    Of a person or an animal:
  4. 4
    Of a person or an animal:
  5. 5
    Of a person or an animal:
  6. 6
    Of a person or an animal:
  7. 7
    Of a person or an animal:
  8. 8
    Of a capability:
  9. 9
    Of a capability:
  10. 10
    Of a capability:
  11. 11
    Of a property or quality:
  12. 12
    Of a property or quality:
  13. 13
    Of a property or quality:
  14. 14
    Of a property or quality:
  15. 15
    Of a property or quality:
  16. 16
    Of a property or quality:
  17. 17
    Of a property or quality:
  18. 18
    Of a property or quality:
  19. 19
    Of a property or quality:
  20. 20
    Of a property or quality:
  21. 21
    Of a property or quality:
  22. 22
    Of a property or quality:
  23. 23
    Very, extremely. See good and.
  24. 24
    Ready.
  25. 25
    Holy (especially when capitalized) .
  26. 26
    Of a quantity:
  27. 27
    Of a quantity:
  28. 28
    Of a quantity:
  29. 29
    Special, best, favorite.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how good appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. good intentions
  2. c. 1525, The Example of Euyll Tongues, page a3 rectoː Yf ony man wolde begynne his synnes to reny / Or ony good people that fro vyce dyde refrayne / What so euer he were that to vertue wolde applye / But an yll tonge wyll all ouer throwe agayne If any man would begin to renounce his sins, / Or any good people who refrained from vice, / Whatsoever he who w…

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English good, from Old English gōd, from Proto-West Germanic *gōd, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, be associated, suit, fit”). Related to gather and together, but not to god/God. Eclipsed non-native Middle English bon, bone, boon, boun (“good”) borrowed from Old French bon (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”). Cognates Cognate with Scots gude, guid (“good”), Yola gayde, gooude, gude (“good”), North Frisian goud, gud, guid, gur, gödj, gööd (“good”), Saterland Frisian goud (“good”), West Frisian goed (“good”), Alemannic German guet (“good”), Bavarian guad (“good”), Central Franconian gut, jot, jott (“good”), Cimbrian guat, guut (“good”), Dutch goed, goei (“good”), Dutch Low Saxon good (“good”), German gut (“good”), Limburgish good, gott (“good”), Low German god, goot, got, gued (“good”), Luxembourgish gutt (“good”), Mòcheno guat (“good”), Vilamovian güt (“good”), Yiddish גוט (gut, “good”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish god (“good”), Elfdalian guoð (“good”), Faroese, Icelandic góður (“good”), Gothic 𐌲𐍉𐌸𐍃 (gōþs, “good”), Vandalic *guths (“good”); also Albanian nge (“chance, leisure, opportunity, time”), Latvian gods (“honor”), Lithuanian guõdas (“nobleness, virtue; glory, honour”), Belarusian го́дны (hódny, “worthy”), Bulgarian го́ден (góden, “fit, suitable”), Czech hodný (“good, kind”), Polish godny, godzien (“dignified, worthy”), Russian го́дный (gódnyj, “fit, well-suited, good for; (coll.) good”), Ukrainian гі́дний (hídnyj, “deserving, worthy”), го́дний (hódnyj, “fit, well-suited, good for; (coll.) good”).

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ggood
  • godo
  • goodd
  • ogod

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of good - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ggood1godo2goodd1ogod2
Edit distance from "good"

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "good"?
"good" is spelled G-O-O-D. The IPA pronunciation is /ɡʊd/.
What does "good" mean?
As an adjective, "good" means: Of a person or an animal:
What words are commonly confused with "good"?
"good" is commonly confused with "got", "GOP", "Guo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "good"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "good" is /ɡʊd/. 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 "good"?
Inherited from Middle English good, from Old English gōd, from Proto-West Germanic *gōd, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, be associated, suit, fit”). Related to gather and together, but not to god/G... 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "good", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

What to do next

You've looked up "good". Here's where to go from here.

  • "good" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "got". View pair
  • 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #78 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "G" letter cohort. G–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list