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PlainSpell

goose

/ɡus/noun, verb

goose is spelled G-O-O-S-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, goose means “Any of various grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which have feathers and webbed feet and are capable of flying, swimming, and walking on…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of goose is geese.

How many letters and syllables are in goose?

Letters5: G-O-O-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.9 times per million words; the 9,045th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is goose?

Goose appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce goose?

  • UK /ɡuːs/
  • British /ɡʉ͡ws/
  • US /ɡus/

Goose has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-goose.ogg, En-us-goose.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with goose?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as goose from its last stressed vowel (/us/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of goose

  • geese plural
  • gooses present, singular, he/she/it
  • goosing participle, present
  • goosed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does goose mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any of various grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which have feathers and webbed feet and are capable of flying, swimming, and walking on land, and which are generally bigger than ducks.

    There is a flock of geese on the pond.

  2. 2

    A female goose.

  3. 3

    The flesh of the goose used as food.

  4. 4

    slangA silly person.

  5. 5

    archaicA tailor's iron, heated in live coals or embers, used to press fabrics.

  6. 6

    datedslangA young woman or girlfriend.

  7. 7

    An old English board game in which players moved counters along a board, earning a double move when they reached the picture of a goose.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo sharply poke or pinch the buttocks, or prod between the buttocks (of a person).

  2. 2

    slangTo stimulate; to spur.

  3. 3

    slangTo gently accelerate (a vehicle); to give repeated, small taps on the accelerator of (a vehicle); to feather the throttle of (a vehicle).

  4. 4

    UKslangOf private-hire taxi drivers, to pick up a passenger who has not booked a cab, in violation of UK licensing conditions.

  5. 5

    slangTo hiss (a performer) off the stage.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Goose in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchoie (a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae)
GermanGans (a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae)
Portugueseganso (a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae)
Spanishganso, oca, ánsar, ansarón (a grazing waterfowl of the family Anatidae), carne ansarina (flesh of a goose used as food)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does goose come from?

From Middle English goos, gos, from Old English gōs, from Proto-West Germanic *gans, from Proto-Germanic *gans, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after goose