great
/ˈɡɹeɪt/
"great" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“great” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #138 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #138
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Taking much space; large.
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 | great |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #138 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “great” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for great is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹeɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #138 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for great, with forms such as "gerat", "ggreat", and "graet". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "grt", "grew", "grey", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English greet (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, thick, coarse, massive”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub, gr… The correct English form is great, spelled G-R-E-A-T.
Definition
- 1Taking much space; large.
- 2Taking much space; large.
- 3Taking much space; large.
- 4Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic.
- 5Important, consequential.
- 6Involving more generations than the qualified word implies — as many extra generations as repetitions of the word great (from 1510s).
- 7Pregnant; large with young; full of.
- 8Intimate; familiar.
- 9Arising from or possessing idealism; admirable; commanding; illustrious; eminent.
- 10Impressive or striking.
- 11Much in use; favoured.
- 12Of much talent or achievements.
- 13Doing or exemplifying (a characteristic or pursuit) on a large scale; active or enthusiastic.
Etymology
From Middle English greet (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, thick, coarse, massive”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub, grind, remove”). Cognates Cognate with Scots graat, great, greet (“great”), Yola graat (“great”), North Frisian grat, groot, grot, grut, gurt (“big, great, large”), Saterland Frisian groot (“big, large”), West Frisian grut (“big, great, large”), Alemannic German groß, gruuss (“very large”), Central Franconian jruß (“big, great, large”), Cimbrian gròas, groaz (“big, great, large”), Dutch and German Low German groot (“big, great, large”), German gross, groß (“big, large”), Luxembourgish grouss (“big, great, large”), Mòcheno groas (“big, great, large”), Vilamovian grus, grūs (“big, great, large”), Yiddish גרויס (groys, “big, large”); also Latin grandis (“big, great, large”). Related to grit. Doublet of gross. The modern pronunciation shows an irregular change of Early Modern English /ɛː/ to /eɪ/ in the standard language; contrast this with the development of other words such as beat and heat.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gerat,ggreat,graet,greatt,grreat,rgeat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of great - 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 “great”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-R-E-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɹeɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “grt” - see the side-by-side comparison. great vs grt
- 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.