goovsgoûtWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,194
“goo” frequency rank
#1,293
“goût” frequency rank
47487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature goo goût
Definition Substance liquide ou semi-liquide ; en particulier, liquide plus ou moins visqueux, poisseux ou glissant, ou bien fluide corporel. Jaja. Celui des cinq sens par lequel on discerne les saveurs.

Same sound, different letters: goo vs goût

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters. goo runs 3 letters (CVV) against goût's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
goo
4 ch
goût

Same sound, different spelling - goo / goût

This is the hard kind. goo and goût are pronounced identically (\ɡuː\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

goo is recorded at frequency rank #46,194, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡuː\. goût is at rank #1,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡu\.

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 47487, this pair ranks #186,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of goo vs goût

Shared letters: go. Private to "goo": -. Private to "goût": tû.

"goo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "goût" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "goo" and "goût" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɡuː\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "goo" or "goût"?
"goût" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,293 in our French list, against #46,194 for "goo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "goo" / "goût". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "goo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goût" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "goo" and "goût" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goo vs gx". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #186,561 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