gobevsgolemConfusable pair

Which to use

“gobe” and “golem” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,359
“gobe” frequency rank
#44,479
“golem” frequency rank
91838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gobe golem
Definition Variante orthographique de gobbe. Dans les légendes juives du Moyen Âge, figure d’argile auquel un rabbin donnait vie pour sauver la communauté des pogroms en inscrivant sur le front de ladite figure le mot אמת, emeth (« vérité ») et que l’on tuait en effaçant la première lettre du mot, formant ainsi le mot מת, meth (« mort »).

Where the eye mixes gobe and golem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gobe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against golem's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gobe
5 ch
golem

Visual trap between gobe and golem

A purely visual mix-up. gobe (\ɡɔb\) and golem (\ɡɔ.lɛm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gobe is recorded at frequency rank #47,359, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔb\. golem is at rank #44,479, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔ.lɛm\.

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 91838, this pair ranks #3,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gobe vs golem

Shared letters: ego. Private to "gobe": b. Private to "golem": lm.

"gobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "golem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gobe ← gboe · ggobe · gobbe · goeb · ogbe
  • golem ← ggolem · gloem · goelm · golemm · gollem · golme · oglem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gobe" and "golem" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔb\ versus \ɡɔ.lɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gobe" vs "golem" - which ranks higher?
"golem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,479 in our French list, against #47,359 for "gobe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gobe" and "golem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gobe". 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 #3,487 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