goodbye
/ɡʊdˈbaɪ/
"goodbye" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“goodbye” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,305 in English word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #4,305
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | goodbye |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,305 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “goodbye” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for goodbye is 7 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,305 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for goodbye, with forms such as "ggoodbye", "godbye", and "godobye". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "goody", "goode", "goodie", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier goodby, Godby, Godby'e, Godbwye, God b'w'y, God bwy yee, God buy you, God be wi' you, each a progressively shorter contraction of God be with ye or God be with you. Note the change of God to good by confusion with good morning, good night, etc.… The correct English form is goodbye, spelled G-O-O-D-B-Y-E.
Definition
- 1Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.
Etymology
From earlier goodby, Godby, Godby'e, Godbwye, God b'w'y, God bwy yee, God buy you, God be wi' you, each a progressively shorter contraction of God be with ye or God be with you. Note the change of God to good by confusion with good morning, good night, etc. Modernly analysed as good + bye.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ggoodbye,godbye,godobye,goobdye,goodbbye,goodbey,goodbyye,gooddbye,goodybe,ogodbye
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of goodbye - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “goodbye”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-O-O-D-B-Y-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “goody” - see the side-by-side comparison. goodbye vs goody
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.