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guy

[ɡaɪ]noun, verb

guy is spelled G-U-Y: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 251 times per million words in written English, the 387th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, guy means “An effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of guy is guys; Wiktionary also lists guies (obsolete).

How many letters and syllables are in guy?

Letters3: G-U-Y
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing251 times per million words; the 387th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is guy?

Guy appears 251 times per million words in written English, the 387th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce guy?

  • /ɡaɪ/
  • US [ɡaɪ]
  • British [ɡɑj]

Guy has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-guy.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Typheuss-Guy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of guy

  • guys plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • guying participle, present
  • guyed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does guy mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    IrelandUKAn effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November).

  2. 2

    datedA person of eccentric appearance or dress; a "fright".

  3. 3

    colloquialA man or boy; a fellow.

  4. 4

    A person (see usage notes).

    I recently rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy. I'm not a Star Wars guy, but I did enjoy them a lot more than I did the first time. / The movie seemed more like just Ellie's personal journey into being, like, "Wow, religion can be cool

  5. 5

    colloquialAnything seen to have character and personality, such as an animal or a toy.

    The dog's left foreleg was broken, poor little guy.

  6. 6

    informaldude, Buster, Mack, fella, bud, man.

    Hey, guy, give a man a break, would ya?

  7. 7

    colloquialThing, item (term that can be used to refer to any entity)

    This guy, here, controls the current, and this guy, here, measures the voltage.

  8. 8

    obsoleterareA guide; a leader or conductor.

  9. 9

    A support rope or cable used to aid in hoisting or lowering.

  10. 10

    A support to secure or steady structures prone to shift their position or be carried away (e.g. the mast of a ship, a suspension bridge, or a utility pole).

verb

  1. 1

    To exhibit an effigy of Guy Fawkes around the 5th November.

  2. 2

    To make fun of, to ridicule with wit or innuendo.

  3. 3

    To equip with a support cable.

noun

as Guy
  1. 1

    UKAn effigy of Guy Fawkes burned on Bonfire Night

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Guy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmec, gars, type (male, man), hauban (nautical: support rope or cable to aid in…)
GermanTyp, Kerl (male, man), Typen, Kerle, Leute (in plural: people), abspannen (to equip with a support cable)
Portuguesetipo, cara, chapa, bicho (male, man), pessoal, galera (in plural: people)
Spanishtipo, güey, buey, cuate, gallo, mae (male, man)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does guy come from?

Coined by semantic widening from the name of Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), an English Catholic executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, which also came to refer to effigies of his image burned annually on Guy Fawkes Night. The name Guy is from Old French Gui, from a Frankish form of Proto-West Germanic *Widō (compare Old Dutch Wido), a short form of names beginning with the element *widu (“wood”), from Proto-Germanic *widuz. Cognate with Italian Guido. Doublet of guido.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after guy