good night

phrase

"good-night" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A farewell said in the evening or before going to sleep.

Corpus desk

Index EN-good-night · good night · English

good night · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 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 night
PropertyValue
Headwordgood night
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPhrase
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “good night” in English

good nightranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

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

Rare enough to double-check

good night is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for good night in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Probably a shortening of "May you have a good night." The correct English form is good night, spelled G-O-O-D- -N-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A farewell said in the evening or before going to sleep.
  2. 2
    Expressing incredulity.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […] peculiarities of your law always interest me. What is 'legitim'?" "Oh! Good-night!" I said derisively. "But I am in dead earnest, and really want to know," he added with a perfectly serious face; "I have a small bet on."
  2. Together they pried into the sodden mass, yanking out what was left of the record books. "Oh, good night!" Joe moaned in dismay. "The fire extinguisher liquid has messed up what the fire didn't."

Etymology

Probably a shortening of "May you have a good night."

Synonyms

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 night"?
"good night" is spelled G-O-O-D- -N-I-G-H-T.
What does "good night" mean?
As a phrase, "good night" means: A farewell said in the evening or before going to sleep.
What is the origin of the word "good night"?
Probably a shortening of "May you have a good night." 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