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jack

/ˈd͡ʒæk/noun, verb, adjective

jack is spelled J-A-C-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, jack means “A coarse medieval coat of defence, especially one made of leather” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jack is jacks.

How many letters and syllables are in jack?

Letters4: J-A-C-K
Syllables1
In writing66 times per million words; the 1,602nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is jack?

Jack appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd 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 jack?

  • /ˈd͡ʒæk/
  • [ˈd͡ʒæk]

Jack has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-jack.wav, En-us-jack.ogg, En-au-jack.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with jack

Also written: jak.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of jack

  • jacks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • jacking participle, present
  • jacked participle, past
  • more jack comparative
  • most jack superlative
  • jak

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does jack mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A coarse medieval coat of defence, especially one made of leather.

    jack of plate

  2. 2

    A name applied to a hypothetical or typical man.

  3. 3

    USA man, a fellow; a typical man; men in general.

  4. 4

    colloquialA sailor.

  5. 5

    slangA policeman or detective; (Australia) a military policeman.

  6. 6

    archaicA manual laborer.

  7. 7

    CanadaUScolloquialA lumberjack.

  8. 8

    IndiaslangA sepoy.

  9. 9

    A device for turning a spit; a smokejack or roasting jack.

  10. 10

    A jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus, syn. Artocarpus integrifolia).

  11. 11

    White mango (Mangifera caesia) of fruit-bearing plants.

  12. 12

    slangA home run.

verb

  1. 1

    To physically raise using a jack.

    He jacked the car so that he could replace the brake pads.

  2. 2

    To raise or increase.

    If you want to jack your stats you just write off failures as invalid results.

  3. 3

    To increase the potency of an alcoholic beverage similarly to distillation by chilling it to below the freezing point of water, removing the water ice crystals that form, and leaving the still-liquid alcoholic portion.

  4. 4

    colloquialTo steal (something), typically an automobile; to rob (someone).

    Someone jacked my car last night!

  5. 5

    To dance by moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion.

  6. 6

    colloquialvulgarTo jack off, to masturbate.

  7. 7

    To fight.

  8. 8

    informalTo jerk or move by jerking; to remove or move (something).

  9. 9

    slangTo hit (the ball) hard; especially, to hit (the ball) out of the field, producing a home run.

    Maybe he hung a curve ball to somebody and they jacked it out of the park on him and he wasn’t upset about it.

adjective

  1. 1

    AustraliaTired, disillusioned; fed up (with).

noun

as Jack
  1. 1

    informalA placeholder or conventional name for any man, particularly a younger, lower-class man.

  2. 2

    archaicinformalEllipsis of Jack Tar, a sailor.

  3. 3

    archaicinformalEllipsis of Jack Rum, a soldier.

  4. 4

    A jacqueminot rose.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate jack?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of jack: J.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Jack in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcric (device for raising and supporting a heavy object), type, gars, mec, gonze (man or men in general), âne (male ass (the animal))
GermanWagenheber (device for raising and supporting a heavy object), Buchse (surface mounted connector), Zielkugel (target ball in bowls), Gösch (nautical: small flag at bow of ship), Steckdose (female ended electrical connector)
Portuguesemacaco (device for raising and supporting a heavy object), burro (male ass (the animal)), jack, soquete, jaque (surface mounted connector), macho (male animal)
Spanishgato, gata, cric (device for raising and supporting a heavy object), asno (male ass (the animal)), clavija (surface mounted connector), boliche (target ball in bowls)

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 jack come from?

Inherited from Middle English jakke, from Anglo-Norman jacke, Middle French jaque, jacque, from jacques (“peasant”), from the proper name Jacques. Compare jacquerie.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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