Jew's harp
"jew-s-harp" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Jew's harp” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant ...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Jew's harp |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Jew's harp” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Jew's harp is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant ...".
Zero misspellings are on record for Jew's harp in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain: it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological o… The correct English form is Jew's harp, spelled J-E-W-'-S- -H-A-R-P.
Definition
- 1A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies can be created by changing the shape of the mouth and causing different overtones.
Etymology
The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain: it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological or etymological connection with Jews and the word was capitalized due to the mistaken belief in a connection. Some have connected it to the Cleveland dialectal gew-gaw, related to the Old Norse giga, compare modern Swedish giga, Danish gige, German Geige (“fiddle”). Others have suggested a connection with jaws, the synonym jaw harp may have therefore come first. Other theories point to French jeu-trompe (literally “toy-trumpet”), compare Jew's-trump.
Synonyms
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Jew's harp”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-E-W-'-S- -H-A-R-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.