jig
/d͡ʒɪɡ/noun, verb
jig is spelled J-I-G: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, jig means “A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jig is jigs.
How many letters and syllables are in jig?
| Letters | 3: J-I-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is jig?
Jig appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce jig?
- US /d͡ʒɪɡ/
Jig has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-jig.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with jig
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: jeg.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with jig?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as jig from its last stressed vowel (/ɪɡ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of jig
- jigs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- jigging participle, present
- jigged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does jig mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
- 2
A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
They danced a jig.
- 3
A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
- 4
A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
- 5
A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.
Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.
- 6
An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
- 7
obsoleteA light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
- 8
obsoleteA trick; a prank.
- 9
USdatedoffensiveslangA black person.
verb
- 1
To move briskly, especially as a dance.
The guests were jigging around on the dance floor.
- 2
To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
- 3
To fish with a jig.
- 4
To sing to the tune of a jig.
- 5
To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
- 6
To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
- 7
To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.
- 8
To skip school or be truant.
noun
- 1
radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter J.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Jig in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | jiga , plantilla de guía, guía, plantilla, calibre |
| French | patron, modèle |
| German | Schablone, Lehre, Vorrichtung |
| Portuguese | escantilhão |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does jig come from?
Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).