jailbird
"jailbird" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jailbird” is uncommon English (frequency #96,097 among 4,872 “J” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,097
- frequency rank, English
- 4,872
- “J” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A prisoner or an ex-prisoner
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jailbird |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #96,097 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “jailbird” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
jailbird is uncommon English at frequency #96,097 among 4,872 “J” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A prisoner or an ex-prisoner".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for jailbird, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From jail + bird, circa 1600. Compare gallows bird. The correct English form is jailbird, spelled J-A-I-L-B-I-R-D.
Definition
- 1A prisoner or an ex-prisoner
Etymology
From jail + bird, circa 1600. Compare gallows bird.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “jailbird”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-A-I-L-B-I-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.