gigolo
/ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/
"gigolo" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gigolo” is an uncommon English word, ranked #54,803 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #54,803
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gigolo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #54,803 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gigolo” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gigolo is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #54,803 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for gigolo in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in English in 1922. From French gigolo (“young lover kept by an older woman”), first attested in that sense in 1904 (attested since 1850 in the sense “Amant de cœur, compagnon d'une gigolette", and since 1894 in the sense “elegant young man w… The correct English form is gigolo, spelled G-I-G-O-L-O.
Definition
- 1A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly
- 2A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly
Etymology
First attested in English in 1922. From French gigolo (“young lover kept by an older woman”), first attested in that sense in 1904 (attested since 1850 in the sense “Amant de cœur, compagnon d'une gigolette", and since 1894 in the sense “elegant young man whose means of livelihood are dubious”), a back-formation from gigolette (“promiscuous dancing girl, girl available for hire as a dancing partner”), attested since 1850, from giguer (“to dance”), from gigue (“fiddle; type of dance; jig”). More at jig.
Synonyms
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 “gigolo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-I-G-O-L-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/ (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.