gut
/ɡʌt/
"gut" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gut” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,915 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,915
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The alimentary canal, especially the intestine.
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 | gut |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡʌt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,915 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gut” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gut is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡʌt/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,915 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for gut in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "guy", "gym", "GYN", 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 gut, gutte, gotte, from Old English gutt (usually in plural guttas (“guts, entrails”)), from Proto-Germanic *gut-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”). Related to English gote (“drain”), Old English ġēotan (“to pour”). More at g… The correct English form is gut, spelled G-U-T.
Definition
- 1The alimentary canal, especially the intestine.
- 2The abdomen of a person, especially one that is enlarged.
- 3The intestines of an animal used to make strings of a tennis racket or violin, etc.
- 4A person's emotional, visceral self.
- 5A class that is not demanding or challenging.
- 6A narrow passage of water.
- 7The sac of silk taken from a silkworm when ready to spin its cocoon, for the purpose of drawing it out into a thread. When dry, it is exceedingly strong, and is used as the snood of a fishing line.
Etymology
From Middle English gut, gutte, gotte, from Old English gutt (usually in plural guttas (“guts, entrails”)), from Proto-Germanic *gut-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”). Related to English gote (“drain”), Old English ġēotan (“to pour”). More at gote, yote. The verb is from Middle English gutten, gotten (“to gut”).
This word in other languages
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 “gut”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-U-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡʌt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “guy” - see the side-by-side comparison. gut vs guy
- 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.