Skip to main content
PlainSpell

jitter

/ˈd͡ʒɪtɚ/noun, verb

jitter is spelled J-I-T-T-E-R: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,808th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, jitter means “A nervous action; a tic” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jitter is jitters.

How many letters and syllables are in jitter?

Letters6: J-I-T-T-E-R
In writingabout once in every 3 million words; the 54,808th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is jitter?

Jitter appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,808th 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 jitter?

  • UK /ˈd͡ʒɪtə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈd͡ʒɪtɚ/
  • US [ˈd͡ʒɪɾɚ]

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-jitter.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-jitter.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with jitter?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as jitter from its last stressed vowel (/ɪtəɹ/):

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 jitter

  • jitters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • jittering participle, present
  • jittered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does jitter mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A nervous action; a tic.

  2. 2

    A state of nervousness.

    That creepy movie gave me the jitters.

  3. 3

    An abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics.

  4. 4

    A random positioning of data points to avoid visual overlap.

  5. 5

    A program or routine that performs jitting; a just-in-time compiler.

verb

  1. 1

    To be nervous.

  2. 2

    To position data points randomly to avoid visual overlap.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Jitter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtic nerveux (nervous action; a tic), gigue (telecommunications: abrupt and unwanted…)
GermanZittern (nervous action; a tic), Nervosität, Aufgeregtheit (state of nervousness; the jitters), bibbern, zittern (To be nervous)
Portuguesetique nervoso (nervous action; a tic), jitter (telecommunications: abrupt and unwanted…)
Spanishtic nervioso (nervous action; a tic), tembleque (state of nervousness; the jitters)

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 jitter come from?

Possibly alteration of chitter (“to tremble, shiver”), from Middle English chittern (“to twitter, chatter”). Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after jitter