jig
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "jig", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "jig" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "jig" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
jig is aEnglishnoun. It means: A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue. Pronounced /d͡ʒɪɡ/. Often confused with Jr and jo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jig |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒɪɡ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #25,439 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for jig is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒɪɡ/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,439 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for jig in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Jr", "jo", "Ju", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is jig, spelled J-I-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
- 2A 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.
- 3A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
- 4A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
- 5A 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.
- 6An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
- 7A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
- 8A trick; a prank.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #25,439 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter J in our English index: