January
/ˈd͡ʒæn.jʊ.ə.ɹi/
"january" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“January” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #851 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #851
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The first month of the Gregorian calendar, following the December of the previous year and preceding February.
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 | January |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒæn.jʊ.ə.ɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #851 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “January” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for January is 7 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒæn.jʊ.ə.ɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #851 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for January, with forms such as "ajnuary", "janaury", and "jannuary". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "jaguar", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂-der. Latin iānus Latin Iānus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āsios Latin -arius Latin Iānuāriusder. Anglo-Norman geneverbor. Middle English Janevere Middle English Januarie English January From Middle En… The correct English form is January, spelled J-A-N-U-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1The first month of the Gregorian calendar, following the December of the previous year and preceding February.
- 2A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English].
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂-der. Latin iānus Latin Iānus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āsios Latin -arius Latin Iānuāriusder. Anglo-Norman geneverbor. Middle English Janevere Middle English Januarie English January From Middle English Januarie, januari, re-latinised forms of Middle English Janevere, Ieneuer, from Anglo-Norman genever, from Latin Iānuārius (“(month) of Janus”), a compound of Iānus ("Janus") + -ārius (adjectival suffix), with the first element perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *yeh₂- (“to go”). Doublet of Gennaro.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ajnuary,janaury,jannuary,januarry,januaryy,januayr,januray,jaunary,jjanuary,jnauary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of January - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “January”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-A-N-U-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒæn.jʊ.ə.ɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jaguar” - see the side-by-side comparison. January vs jaguar
- 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.