Good

How to spell good

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce good

What does good mean?

1. adjectiveOf a high standard, satisfactory, or pleasing in quality.
2. adjectiveMorally right, kind, or virtuous in behaviour.
3. nounThat which is beneficial, advantageous, or morally right.

Good in a sentence

• adjective

  The restaurant served a good meal at a fair price.

• adjective

  He is a good man who looks after his elderly neighbours.

• noun

  The new policy was introduced for the good of all staff.

• adjective

  She did a good job on the quarterly report.

• adjective

  Doing the good thing meant returning the extra change.

• noun

  Volunteers gave up their weekend for the common good.

Where does good come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from Old English god, meaning 'virtuous, desirable, or suitable', and it traces back to a Proto-Germanic root gothaz that carried the sense of something fitting or that fits together well. Relatives survive across the Germanic languages, including German gut and Dutch goed, all sharing that same ancestral idea of suitability. Although it looks identical to the religious word 'God', the two are unrelated in origin and only coincidentally similar in spelling. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from 'suitable' into the very general sense of being of high quality, morally right, or pleasing that we use constantly today. The doubled o reflects a long historical vowel, and because the word is so familiar it almost never causes spelling trouble for adults.

How the word is built

• good (a native English root meaning fitting or suitable); not built from prefix or suffix