KGB
"kgb" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“KGB” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,629 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #19,629
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The Committee for State Security of the Soviet Union (the Soviet security service).
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 | KGB |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #19,629 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “KGB” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for KGB is 3 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #19,629 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
KGB doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "kI", "ky", "ko", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Russian КГБ (KGB), acronym of Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (Komitét gosudárstvennoj bezopásnosti, “State Security Committee”). The correct English form is KGB, spelled K-G-B.
Definition
- 1The Committee for State Security of the Soviet Union (the Soviet security service).
- 2The security service of Belarus.
Etymology
From Russian КГБ (KGB), acronym of Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (Komitét gosudárstvennoj bezopásnosti, “State Security Committee”).
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 “KGB”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-G-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “kI” - see the side-by-side comparison. KGB vs kI
- 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.