wild goose

noun

"wild-goose" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“wild goose” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - any of many species of wildlife goose, such as the greylag goose or the Canada goose, whose wedge fly in a wedge or V form, or cuneiform, as opposed to the domesticated goose that would not fly.

Corpus desk

Index EN-wild-goose · wild goose · English

wild goose · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "W" 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.

Key facts for wild goose
PropertyValue
Headwordwild goose
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “wild goose” in English

wild gooseranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

wild goose is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "any of many species of wildlife goose, such as the greylag goose or the Canada goose, whose wedge fly in a wedge or V form, or cuneiform, as opposed to the domesticated goose that would not fly.".

No misspelling variants are generated for wild goose in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wilde gos. The correct English form is wild goose, spelled W-I-L-D- -G-O-O-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    any of many species of wildlife goose, such as the greylag goose or the Canada goose, whose wedge fly in a wedge or V form, or cuneiform, as opposed to the domesticated goose that would not fly.

Etymology

From Middle English wilde gos.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wild goose"?
"wild goose" is spelled W-I-L-D- -G-O-O-S-E.
What does "wild goose" mean?
As a noun, "wild goose" means: any of many species of wildlife goose, such as the greylag goose or the Canada goose, whose wedge fly in a wedge or V form, or cuneiform, as opposed to the domesticated goose that would not fly.
What is the origin of the word "wild goose"?
From Middle English wilde gos. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list