jail fever

/ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/

//ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə// noun

"jail-fever" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“jail fever” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - typhus spread in jails.

Corpus desk

Index EN-jail-fever · jail fever · English

jail fever · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "J" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for jail fever
PropertyValue
Headwordjail fever
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “jail fever” in English

jail feversits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

jail fever is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for jail fever, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is jail fever, spelled J-A-I-L- -F-E-V-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    typhus spread in jails.
  2. 2
    any infectious disease spread in cramped and unhygienic conditions.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how jail fever appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A'LTHO this Fever neither arose in a Jail, nor a Hospital, yet it so exactly re-sembles the Jail Fever, both in the symptoms, causes, and method of cure, that I have not scrupled to treat of it under that name.
  2. I have now the satisfaction to see this opinion confirmed, in so far at least as relates to the dysentery, a putrid disease, equally contagious with the jail fever, and in military hospitals, at least, still more fatal.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "jail fever"?
"jail fever" is spelled J-A-I-L- -F-E-V-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/.
What does "jail fever" mean?
As a noun, "jail fever" means: typhus spread in jails.
How do you pronounce "jail fever"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "jail fever" is /ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "jail fever" come from?
"jail fever" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list