jawsvsjetsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,742
“jaws” frequency rank
#6,155
“jets” frequency rank
19897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jaws jets
Definition plural of jaw plural of jet

Where the eye mixes jaws and jets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
jaws
4 ch
jets

Why the eye confuses jaws with jets

A purely visual mix-up. jaws (/d͡ʒɔːz/) and jets (/d͡ʒɛts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jaws is recorded at frequency rank #13,742, classified as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒɔːz/. jets is at rank #6,155, tagged as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒɛts/.

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 19897, this pair ranks #434,951 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of jaws vs jets

Shared letters: js. Private to "jaws": aw. Private to "jets": et.

"jaws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "jets" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jawsajws · jasw · jawss · jawws · jjaws · jwas
  • jetsejts · jetss · jetts · jjets · jtes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "jaws" and "jets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/d͡ʒɔːz/ versus /d͡ʒɛts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "jaws" vs "jets" - which ranks higher?
"jets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,155 in our English list, against #13,742 for "jaws". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "jaws" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,951 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jaws" and "jets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jaws vs jigs". 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 #434,951 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list