gin
/d͡ʒɪn/noun, verb, conjunction
gin is spelled G-I-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.8 times per million words in written English, the 11,541st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gin means “A colourless non-aged alcoholic liquor made by distilling fermented grains such as barley, corn, oats or rye with juniper berries; the base for many…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gin is gins.
How many letters and syllables are in gin?
| Letters | 3: G-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.8 times per million words; the 11,541st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gin?
Gin appears 4.8 times per million words in written English, the 11,541st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gin?
- /d͡ʒɪn/
As a verb (“To begin”): /ɡɪn/.
Gin has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gin.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_gin.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with gin
Sounds like: djinn (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with gin?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as gin.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ing, nig.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gin
- gins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- ginning participle, present
- ginned participle, past
- gan past
- gun participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gin mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A colourless non-aged alcoholic liquor made by distilling fermented grains such as barley, corn, oats or rye with juniper berries; the base for many cocktails.
- 2
Gin rummy.
- 3
Drawing the best card or combination of cards.
Johnny Chan held jack-nine, and hit gin when a queen-ten-eight board was dealt out.
- 4
obsoleteA trick; a device or instrument.
- 5
obsoleteA scheme; contrivance; artifice; a figurative trap or snare.
- 6
A snare or trap for game.
- 7
A machine for raising or moving heavy objects, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys, ropes, etc.
- 8
A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.
- 9
A pile driver.
- 10
A windpump.
- 11
A cotton gin.
- 12
AustraliaAn Aboriginal woman.
verb
- 1
To remove the seeds from cotton with a cotton gin.
- 2
To trap something in a gin.
- 3
archaicTo begin.
conjunction
- 1
ScotlandIf.
noun
- 1
An ethnic Vietnamese, in reference to those whose lands are in China.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gin come from?
Abbreviation of geneva, alteration of Dutch genever (“juniper”) from Old French genevre (modern French genièvre), from Vulgar Latin ziniperus, from Latin iūniperus (“juniper”). Hence gin rummy (first attested 1941).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).