good afternoon

phrase

"good-afternoon" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“good afternoon” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A greeting or farewell said in the afternoon.

Corpus desk

Index EN-good-afternoon · good afternoon · English

good afternoon · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 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.

Key facts for good afternoon
PropertyValue
Headwordgood afternoon
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPhrase
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “good afternoon” in English

good afternoonsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

good afternoon is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A greeting or farewell said in the afternoon.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for good afternoon, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: Probably a shortening of "I wish you a good afternoon." The correct English form is good afternoon, spelled G-O-O-D- -A-F-T-E-R-N-O-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A greeting or farewell said in the afternoon.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for coming to our special meeting today.
  2. Jeeves: Good afternoon, madam. Landlady: Don't you good afternoon me. I'm a respectable woman. Jeeves: I have no reason to doubt it, madam.

Etymology

Probably a shortening of "I wish you a good afternoon."

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "good afternoon"?
"good afternoon" is spelled G-O-O-D- -A-F-T-E-R-N-O-O-N.
What does "good afternoon" mean?
As a phrase, "good afternoon" means: A greeting or farewell said in the afternoon.
What is the origin of the word "good afternoon"?
Probably a shortening of "I wish you a good afternoon." 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list