ghostvsgrossWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ghost is a noun, gross is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ghost” is a noun and “gross” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,636
“ghost” frequency rank
#22,579
“gross” frequency rank
38215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ghost gross
Definition Clone de données, effectué à l'aide du célèbre logiciel Ghost. Variante orthographique de groß.

Where the eye mixes ghost and gross

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ghost
5 ch
gross

Visual trap between ghost and gross

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ghost is \ɡɔst\ while gross is \ɡʀoːs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ghost is recorded at frequency rank #15,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\. gross is at rank #22,579, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʀoːs\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 38215, this pair ranks #256,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ghost vs gross

Shared letters: gos. Private to "ghost": ht. Private to "gross": r.

"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "gross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ghostgghost · ghhost · ghosst · ghostt · ghots · ghsot · gohst · hgost
  • grossggross · gorss · grross · grsos · rgoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ghost" and "gross" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ghost" is a noun and "gross" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ghost" vs "gross" - which ranks higher?
"ghost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,636 in our French list, against #22,579 for "gross". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ghost" and "gross" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ghost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #256,854 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ghost" and "gross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gross vs grow". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #256,854 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list