cajole
/kəˈdʒəʊl/
"cajole" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cajole” is an uncommon English word, ranked #75,697 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #75,697
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To persuade someone to do something which they are reluctant to do, especially by flattery or promises; to coax.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cajole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kəˈdʒəʊl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #75,697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cajole” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cajole is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈdʒəʊl/. Corpus data places it at rank #75,697 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To persuade someone to do something which they are reluctant to do, especially by flattery or promises; to coax.".
Zero misspellings are on record for cajole in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French cajoler, probably a blend of Middle French cageoler (“chatter like a jay”) (from gajole, dialectal diminutive of geai (“jaybird”)) + Old French gaioler (“entice into a cage”), which is from Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveol… The correct English form is cajole, spelled C-A-J-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1To persuade someone to do something which they are reluctant to do, especially by flattery or promises; to coax.
Etymology
Borrowed from French cajoler, probably a blend of Middle French cageoler (“chatter like a jay”) (from gajole, dialectal diminutive of geai (“jaybird”)) + Old French gaioler (“entice into a cage”), which is from Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveola (whence English caveola), diminutive of Latin cavea (“cage, coop, enclosure, stall”). More at cage, cave, cavum, cavus, and jail.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cajole”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-J-O-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈdʒəʊl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.