jail
/d͡ʒeɪl/
"jail" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jail” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,392. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #2,392
- frequency rank, English
- 796
- “J” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A place or institution for the confinement of persons held against their will in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a place where people are held for minor offenses or with refer...
Corpus desk
Index EN-jail · jail · English
jail · rank #2,392 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,392
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 796
- PHOTO-FINISH Iran
Nearest frequency peer: Iran (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “jail”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- EU
EU
97,612 corpus weight
- giant
giant
97,611 corpus weight
- Iran
Iran
97,610 corpus weight
- jail
jail
97,609 corpus weight
- Jim
Jim
97,608 corpus weight
- kingdom
kingdom
97,607 corpus weight
What this shows “jail” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jail |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒeɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,392 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “jail”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around jail (IPA /d͡ʒeɪl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,392 among 796 “J” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for jail, with forms such as "ajil", "jaill", and "jali". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "JI", "Jim", "Jan", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, from Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveola (“small cage, cell”), a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). Doublet of caveola and related t… The correct English form is jail, spelled J-A-I-L.
Definition
- 1A place or institution for the confinement of persons held against their will in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a place where people are held for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
- 2Confinement in a jail.
- 3The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).
- 4In dodgeball and related games, the area where players who have been struck by the ball are confined.
- 5A kind of sandbox for running a guest operating system instance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how jail appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
serve time in jail
released from jail
Etymology
From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, from Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveola (“small cage, cell”), a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). Doublet of caveola and related to cage. More at cajole. Fully displaced native Middle English quartern (“prison, jail, cell”), from Old English cweartern (“jail, prison”). Partially displaced native Middle English lok, from Old English loc (“enclosure, pen; jail, prison”), whence lock; and Middle English carcern, from Old English carcern, from Latin carcer (“prison, jail”). Compare these Old English words, all meaning “jail”: heaþor, heolstorloca (means also “jail cell”), clūstorloc, dung (also “dungeon”), hlinræced, nirwþ, nīedcleofa, hearmloca, and nearu.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ajil
- jaill
- jali
- jial
- jjail
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of jail - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "jail", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).