NGO
"ngo" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“NGO” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,543) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #16,543
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of non-governmental organization.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ngo · NGO · English
NGO · rank #16,543 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,543
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH Nielsen
Nearest frequency peer: Nielsen (+1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “NGO”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- mundane
mundane
83,462 corpus weight
- nay
nay
83,460 corpus weight
- NGO
NGO
83,458 corpus weight
- Nielsen
Nielsen
83,457 corpus weight
- nr
nr
83,456 corpus weight
- nutshell
nutshell
83,455 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “NGO” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | NGO |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #16,543 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “NGO”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for NGO is neighbouring look-alikes ("NJ", "ni", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #16,543 among 1,534 “N” headwords. Gloss: "Initialism of non-governmental organization.".
Zero misspellings are on record for NGO in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NJ", "ni", "nm", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is NGO, spelled N-G-O.
Definition
- 1Initialism of non-governmental organization.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how NGO appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For instance, Philately is the most popular hobby of the world. Hence, introducing biophilately in the agenda of the concerned NGO will enhance its success in its aims. Spotting animals, birds, plants, insects, etc. on stamps may provide interested people with an efficient media of education […]
Often compared to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or associations, intergroups are also similar to lobbying groups because they receive external assistance in the form of financial and/or secretarial support.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "NGO", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).