my goodness
/maɪ ˈɡʊdnəs/
"my-goodness" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“my goodness” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used to express surprise, shock, or amazement.
Corpus desk
Index EN-my-goodness · my goodness · English
my goodness · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | my goodness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /maɪ ˈɡʊdnəs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “my goodness” in English
Rare enough to double-check
my goodness is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection, transcribed /maɪ ˈɡʊdnəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Used to express surprise, shock, or amazement.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for my goodness in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Minced oath for my God. The correct English form is my goodness, spelled M-Y- -G-O-O-D-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Used to express surprise, shock, or amazement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how my goodness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My goodness, what a loud noise!
Etymology
Minced oath for my God.
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.