Japan
/d͡ʒəˈpæn/
"japan" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Japan” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,369 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #1,369
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A country and archipelago of East Asia. Capital and largest city: Tokyo.
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 | Japan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒəˈpæn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,369 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Japan” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Japan is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒəˈpæn/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,369 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A country and archipelago of East Asia. Capital and largest city: Tokyo.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Japan, with forms such as "ajpan", "jaapn", and "japann". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "jean", "Juan", "Joan", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Hokkien 日本 /Ji̍t-púnbor. Malay Jepangbor. Portuguese Japãobor. ▲ Malay Jepangbor. Dutch Japanbor. English Japan First attested in English as Giapan in Richard Willes's 1577 The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies (cited in Peter C… The correct English form is Japan, spelled J-A-P-A-N.
Definition
- 1A country and archipelago of East Asia. Capital and largest city: Tokyo.
Etymology
Etymology tree Hokkien 日本 /Ji̍t-púnbor. Malay Jepangbor. Portuguese Japãobor. ▲ Malay Jepangbor. Dutch Japanbor. English Japan First attested in English as Giapan in Richard Willes's 1577 The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies (cited in Peter C. Mancall's Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery, pp. 156–57), translating a 19 February 1565 letter of the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis as "Of the Ilande of Giapan". Borrowed from Portuguese Japam /Japão with possible influence from Dutch Japan, both from Malay Jepang, from Hokkien 日本 (Ji̍t-pún), from Middle Chinese 日本 (nyit pwon^X, “sun origin”). With /j/ readings, such as Iaponia /Japonia /Japon /Iapon from possibly Cantonese 日本 (jat⁶ bun²), also from Middle Chinese 日本 (nyit pwon^X, “sun origin”). Compare also modern Mandarin 日本 (Rìběn), Japanese 日本(にっぽん) (Nippon) / 日本(にほん) (Nihon) (whence English doublets Nippon and Nihon), Korean 일본 (Ilbon) (日本), Vietnamese Nhật Bản (日本). The earliest form of Japan in Europe was Marco Polo's Cipangu, from some form of synonymous Sinitic 日本國 /日本国 (“Japan state”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ajpan,jaapn,japann,japna,jappan,jjapan,jpaan
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Japan - 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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Using “Japan”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-A-P-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒəˈpæn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jean” - see the side-by-side comparison. Japan vs jean
- 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.