gosh
/ɡɒʃ/
"gosh" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gosh” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,296 in English word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #8,296
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.
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 | gosh |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ɡɒʃ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #8,296 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gosh” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gosh is 4 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɒʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,296 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for gosh, with forms such as "ggosh", "gohs", and "goshh". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "GS", "got", "GPS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Altered from God. First seen in 1757 as by gosh, probably from by gosse in Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister (circa 1553). The correct English form is gosh, spelled G-O-S-H.
Definition
- 1A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.
Etymology
Altered from God. First seen in 1757 as by gosh, probably from by gosse in Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister (circa 1553).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ggosh,gohs,goshh,gossh,gsoh,ogsh
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gosh - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “gosh”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-O-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡɒʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “GS” - see the side-by-side comparison. gosh vs GS
- 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.