jail
/d͡ʒeɪl/noun, verb
jail is spelled J-A-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 42 times per million words in written English, the 2,392nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, jail means “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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jail is jails.
How many letters and syllables are in jail?
| Letters | 4: J-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 42 times per million words; the 2,392nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 jail?
Jail appears 42 times per million words in written English, the 2,392nd 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 jail?
- /d͡ʒeɪl/
Jail 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gaol.wav, En-us-jail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with jail?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as jail.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: jali.
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 jail
- jails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- jailing participle, present
- jailed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does jail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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 reference to some future judicial proceeding.
serve time in jail
- 2
Confinement in a jail.
- 3
The 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).
- 4
In dodgeball and related games, the area where players who have been struck by the ball are confined.
- 5
A kind of sandbox for running a guest operating system instance.
verb
- 1
To imprison, incarcerate, enjail.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Jail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense place for short-term confinement:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | prison, geôle |
| German | Gefängnis |
| Portuguese | cadeia, cárcere |
| Spanish | cárcel, presidio, penal, trullo, chirona, trena |
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.