jacksvsjawsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“jacks” and “jaws” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,950
“jacks” frequency rank
#13,742
“jaws” frequency rank
30692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jacks jaws
Definition plural of jack plural of jaw

Where the eye mixes jacks and jaws

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

5 ch
jacks
4 ch
jaws

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. jacks (/d͡ʒæks/) and jaws (/d͡ʒɔːz/) 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 30692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jacks is recorded at frequency rank #16,950, classified as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒæks/. jaws is at rank #13,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒɔːz/.

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 30692, this pair ranks #352,412 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jacks vs jaws

Shared letters: ajs. Private to "jacks": ck. Private to "jaws": w.

"jacks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "jaws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jacksajcks · jaccks · jackks · jackss · jacsk · jakcs · jcaks · jjacks
  • jawsajws · jasw · jawss · jawws · jjaws · jwas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jacks" and "jaws" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/d͡ʒæks/ versus /d͡ʒɔːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jacks" or "jaws"?
"jaws" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,742 in our English list, against #16,950 for "jacks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list