guv'nor
"guv-nor" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“guv'nor” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | guv'nor |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “guv'nor” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for guv'nor is 7 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.".
No misspelling variants are generated for guv'nor in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is guv'nor, spelled G-U-V-'-N-O-R.
Definition
- 1An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “guv'nor”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-U-V-'-N-O-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.