Jesus
/ˈd͡ʒiːzəs/
"jesus" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Jesus” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,106 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #1,106
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Jesus of Nazareth, a first-century Jewish religious preacher and craftsman (commonly understood to have been a carpenter) from Galilee held to be a prophet, teacher, the Son of God, and the Messiah...
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 | Jesus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒiːzəs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,106 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Jesus” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Jesus is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒiːzəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,106 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Jesus, with forms such as "ejsus", "jessu", and "jessus". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "jus", "Jews", "jets", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Jhesus, Iesus, from Latin Iēsūs, from Ancient Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), from Biblical Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (yēšū́aʿ), a contracted form of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (yəhōšúaʿ, “Joshua”), meaning "the Lord saves". The form יֵשׁוּעַ (yēšū́aʿ) is attested in some… The correct English form is Jesus, spelled J-E-S-U-S.
Definition
- 1Jesus of Nazareth, a first-century Jewish religious preacher and craftsman (commonly understood to have been a carpenter) from Galilee held to be a prophet, teacher, the Son of God, and the Messiah, or Christ, in Christianity; also called "Jesus Christ" by Christians. Held to be a prophet by Muslims and Baháʼís. Also called "the historical Jesus" from a historiographic viewpoint or a secular one.
- 2One of a variety of persons or entities in western Manichaeism, of whom some correspond closely to the Christian conception of Jesus of Nazareth.
- 3A male given name from Spanish in Spanish culture; an anglicized spelling of Jesús.
- 4A male given name from Aramaic.
- 5Ellipsis of Jesus College, Cambridge.
- 6Ellipsis of Jesus College, Oxford.
Etymology
From Middle English Jhesus, Iesus, from Latin Iēsūs, from Ancient Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), from Biblical Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (yēšū́aʿ), a contracted form of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (yəhōšúaʿ, “Joshua”), meaning "the Lord saves". The form יֵשׁוּעַ (yēšū́aʿ) is attested in some of the later books of the Hebrew Bible (Ezra–Nehemiah), and translated as Jeshua or Yeshua in some English editions (the former appearing in the King James Version). The Greek texts make no distinction between Jesus and Joshua, referring to them both as Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). In the Wycliffe Bible (Middle English), the forms used are Jhesus and Jhesu.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ejsus,jessu,jessus,jesuss,jeuss,jjesus,jseus
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Jesus - 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 “Jesus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-E-S-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒiːzəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jus” - see the side-by-side comparison. Jesus vs jus
- 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.