demijohn
/ˈdɛmɪdʒɒn/
"demijohn" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“demijohn” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large bottle with a short neck, sometimes with two small handles at the neck, sometimes encased in wickerwork.
Corpus desk
Index EN-demijohn · demijohn · English
demijohn · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | demijohn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɛmɪdʒɒn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “demijohn” in English
Rare enough to double-check
demijohn is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdɛmɪdʒɒn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large bottle with a short neck, sometimes with two small handles at the neck, sometimes encased in wickerwork.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for demijohn, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Partial calque of French dame-jeanne (literally “Lady Jane”), of uncertain origin. Note that the French Jeanne (“Jane, feminine of John”) has changed to the masculine form John, rather than the cognate English Jane. The correct English form is demijohn, spelled D-E-M-I-J-O-H-N.
Definition
- 1A large bottle with a short neck, sometimes with two small handles at the neck, sometimes encased in wickerwork.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how demijohn appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Reckon it's first-drink time,” the old prospector cried cheerily, and unearthed Monica's two-gallon demijohn.
Toby, placing his gold-rimmed spectacles on his nose, set our dinner to simmer and uncorked a demijohn of the old Verfeuille red which glowed in our glasses with the embers of old recollections of half-forgotten journeys and excursions of our youth by the light of the moon.
Etymology
Partial calque of French dame-jeanne (literally “Lady Jane”), of uncertain origin. Note that the French Jeanne (“Jane, feminine of John”) has changed to the masculine form John, rather than the cognate English Jane.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.