Jacobin
/ˈd͡ʒæk.ə.bɪn/
"jacobin" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Jacobin” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,774 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #58,774
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of Dominican, a member of the Dominican Order, particularly its French chapter.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Jacobin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒæk.ə.bɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #58,774 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Jacobin” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Jacobin is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒæk.ə.bɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,774 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Jacobin doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Jacobin, from Old French jacobin, from Latin Jācōbīnus, from Latin Jācōbus (“James, Jacob, etc.”) + -īnus (“-ine: forming adjectives”), from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Biblical Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (Ya'akóv), q.v. In reference to th… The correct English form is Jacobin, spelled J-A-C-O-B-I-N.
Definition
- 1Synonym of Dominican, a member of the Dominican Order, particularly its French chapter.
- 2A member of the Jacobin Club, a radical political club prominent during the French Revolution.
- 3A sympathizer or supposed sympathizer with the French political club or its aims of democracy and social equality.
- 4A leftist radical in other contexts.
- 5Synonym of Jacobite, a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
- 6Alternative letter-case form of jacobin, various birds.
Etymology
From Middle English Jacobin, from Old French jacobin, from Latin Jācōbīnus, from Latin Jācōbus (“James, Jacob, etc.”) + -īnus (“-ine: forming adjectives”), from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Biblical Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (Ya'akóv), q.v. In reference to the Dominican Order, from the proximity of their 1218 chapel and chapter house in Paris to the city's Porte Saint-Jacques, whose road formed an extension of the Way of St. James running to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In reference to the Jacobin Club, from its 1789 founding at the former Dominican convent. In reference to the Syrian church, from Jacob bar Addai, bishop of Edessa during the mid-6th century.
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 “Jacobin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-A-C-O-B-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒæk.ə.bɪn/ (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.