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” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #771. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#771
frequency rank, English
2,313
“G” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.

Corpus desk

Index EN-green · green · English

green · rank #771 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #771
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,313
  • PHOTO-FINISH felt

Nearest frequency peer: felt (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “green”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “green” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

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.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around green (IPA /ɡɹiːn/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #771 among 2,313 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 14 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how green appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In a period of increasing industrialization and the palette of grey, brown, and black that came to dominate the modern city, greens provided a refreshing contrast, seemingly bringing the outdoors in.
  2. Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "green", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

match#774model#775drive#764David#763

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

league7 variantsyou've7 variantsround7 variantsrange7 variants

What to do next

You've looked up "green". Here's where to go from here.

  • "green" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "grew". View pair
  • 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #771 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "G" letter cohort. G–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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