green

/ɡɹiːn/

//ɡɹiːn// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"green" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“green” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #771 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#771
frequency rank, English
5
letters
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

green vs grew
60% similar
green vs grey
60% similar
green vs Greg
40% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for green
PropertyValue
Headwordgreen
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ɡɹiːn/
Letters5
Frequency rank#771
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “green” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). green lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for green is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɹiːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #771 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for green, with forms such as "geren", "ggreen", and "greenn". 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, "grew", "grey", "Greg", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *grōniz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *grōnī Old English grēne Middle English grene English green From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, fr… The correct English form is green, spelled G-R-E-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.
  2. 2
    A member of a green party; an environmentalist.
  3. 3
    A putting green, the part of a golf course near the hole.
  4. 4
    The surface upon which bowls is played.
  5. 5
    One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 3 points.
  6. 6
    A public patch of land in the middle of a settlement.
  7. 7
    A grassy plain; a piece of ground covered with verdant herbage.
  8. 8
    Fresh leaves or branches of trees or other plants; wreaths.
  9. 9
    Any substance or pigment of a green color.
  10. 10
    A green light used as a signal.
  11. 11
    Marijuana.
  12. 12
    Money.
  13. 13
    One of the three color charges for quarks.
  14. 14
    Ellipsis of green room.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *grōniz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *grōnī Old English grēne Middle English grene English green From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen. See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Icelandic grænn. The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

Synonyms

army greenbottle greenBritish racing greeneau de nilemeraldemerald greenforest greengrass-greengreenhoneydewhunter greenkelly greenleaf greenlime greenLincoln greenlodenmalachitemint creammintmoss greenParis greenpea greenrifle greensmaragdinespring greenvirid

This word in other languages

verde(Español)vert(Français)Grün(Deutsch)verde(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: geren,ggreen,greenn,gren,grene,grreen,rgeen

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of green - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

geren2ggreen1greenn1gren1grene2grreen1rgeen2
Edit distance from "green"

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

How do you spell "green"?
"green" is spelled G-R-E-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ɡɹiːn/.
What does "green" mean?
As a noun, "green" means: The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.
What words are commonly confused with "green"?
"green" is commonly confused with "grew", "grey", "Greg". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "green"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "green" is /ɡɹiːn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "green"?
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *grōniz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *grōnī Old English grēne Middle English grene English green From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “green”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is G-R-E-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /ɡɹiːn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “grew” - see the side-by-side comparison. green vs grew
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list