GOTO
/ˈɡəʊ.tuː/
"goto" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“GOTO” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #26,445 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #26,445
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution.
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 | GOTO |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡəʊ.tuː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26,445 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “GOTO” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for GOTO is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡəʊ.tuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,445 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for GOTO, with forms such as "ggoto", "goot", and "gotto". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gut", "GTA", "GST", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From go to, a keyword for this purpose in many programming languages. The correct English form is GOTO, spelled G-O-T-O.
Definition
- 1Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution.
Etymology
From go to, a keyword for this purpose in many programming languages.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ggoto,goot,gotto,gtoo,ogto
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of GOTO - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “GOTO”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-O-T-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡəʊ.tuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gut” - see the side-by-side comparison. GOTO vs gut
- 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.