jeer
/d͡ʒɪə/
"jeer" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jeer” is an uncommon English word, ranked #80,580 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #80,580
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mocking remark or reflection.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jeer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒɪə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #80,580 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “jeer” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for jeer is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒɪə/. Corpus data places it at rank #80,580 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A mocking remark or reflection.".
No misspelling variants are generated for jeer in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier gyr, probably from Dutch gieren (“to roar with laughter, laugh loudly”) (related to German gieren (“to gape, snap”)); or from Dutch gekscheren (“to jeer”, literally “to shear the fool”), from gek (“a fool”) (see geck) + scheren (“to shear”) (se… The correct English form is jeer, spelled J-E-E-R.
Definition
- 1A mocking remark or reflection.
Etymology
From earlier gyr, probably from Dutch gieren (“to roar with laughter, laugh loudly”) (related to German gieren (“to gape, snap”)); or from Dutch gekscheren (“to jeer”, literally “to shear the fool”), from gek (“a fool”) (see geck) + scheren (“to shear”) (see shear (verb)). The OED states no verifiable connection to English cheer.
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 “jeer”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-E-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒɪə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.