goodness gracious
/ˈɡʊdnɪs ˌɡɹeɪʃəs/
"goodness-gracious" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“goodness gracious” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an interjection - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Expressing great surprise.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | goodness gracious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˈɡʊdnɪs ˌɡɹeɪʃəs/ |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “goodness gracious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for goodness gracious is 17 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡʊdnɪs ˌɡɹeɪʃəs/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Expressing great surprise.".
No misspelling variants are generated for goodness gracious in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is goodness gracious, spelled G-O-O-D-N-E-S-S- -G-R-A-C-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Expressing great surprise.
Synonyms
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
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Using “goodness gracious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-O-O-D-N-E-S-S- -G-R-A-C-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡʊdnɪs ˌɡɹeɪʃəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.