jerrycan
/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌkæn/
"jerrycan" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jerrycan” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A robust container for fuel or water, of a certain more or less rectangular shape, often made from pressed steel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-jerrycan · jerrycan · English
jerrycan · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jerrycan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌkæn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “jerrycan” in English
Rare enough to double-check
jerrycan is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌkæn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A robust container for fuel or water, of a certain more or less rectangular shape, often made from pressed steel.".
jerrycan has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Jerry (“a German”) + can, from its use by German troops in World War II. The correct English form is jerrycan, spelled J-E-R-R-Y-C-A-N.
Definition
- 1A robust container for fuel or water, of a certain more or less rectangular shape, often made from pressed steel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how jerrycan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The police fell back, swatting and cursing. At the gateway, somebody grabbed a jerrycan of water from Jonamon's hut and flung its contents at the swarm.
Anyone with half a brain and a jerrycan of fertilizer's got an army.
Etymology
From Jerry (“a German”) + can, from its use by German troops in World War II.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.