goodness gracious

Idioms

Also, good gracious; gracious sakes. Exclamation of surprise, dismay, or alarm, as in Goodness gracious! You've forgotten your ticket. Both goodness and gracious originally alluded to the good (or grace) of God, but these colloquial expressions, which date from the 1700s, are not considered either vulgar or blasphemous.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

goodness gracious

I wish to goodness gracious that PBS were in a position to do that.

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025

Katie Hafner: So Lillian, oh my goodness gracious.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2023

“The future of our American miracle is on the line in a way that I have not seen since, goodness gracious, since maybe I was in high school,” Mr. Pompeo said.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

“And I was like, goodness gracious, man, this guy’s got to step it up,” Brown recalled of the parade nearly a decade later.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2022

We've hooked quite a big fish," said I. "Listen to this: 'The Princess Avalesco presents her compliments to T. B., and hopes that he will——' but, my goodness gracious, Captain Burns!

From The Brightener by Williamson, A. M. (Alice Muriel)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023