own goal
/ˈoʊn.ɡoʊl/
"own-goal" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“own goal” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A goal that results from a player putting the ball or puck into the goal of their own team; the resulting goal being scored for the opposition.
Corpus desk
Index EN-own-goal · own goal · English
own goal · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" 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 | own goal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈoʊn.ɡoʊl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “own goal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
own goal is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈoʊn.ɡoʊl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for own goal in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is own goal, spelled O-W-N- -G-O-A-L.
Definition
- 1A goal that results from a player putting the ball or puck into the goal of their own team; the resulting goal being scored for the opposition.
- 2A blunder that damages one’s own prospects.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how own goal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is 20 years to the day since Escobar was shot dead after scoring the own goal that effectively sealed Colombia’s elimination from USA ’94.
In its penultimate year, for example, starting from when the Provos blew up Canary Wharf in February 1996, the IRA suffered its last 'own goal' when Wexford-born Ed O'Brien blew himself up on a London bus whilst transporting a bomb.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.