Jonah
/ˈd͡ʒoʊnə/noun
Jonah is spelled J-O-N-A-H: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, Jonah means “A person who brings a ship bad luck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of Jonah is Jonahs.
How many letters and syllables are in Jonah?
| Letters | 5: J-O-N-A-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words; the 14,307th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is Jonah?
Jonah appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th 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 Jonah?
- US /ˈd͡ʒoʊnə/
- UK /ˈd͡ʒəʊnə/
Jonah has 2 syllables (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-Jonah.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with Jonah?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as Jonah from its last stressed vowel (/oʊnə/):
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 Jonah
- Jonahs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does Jonah mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
slangA person who brings a ship bad luck.
- 2
slangAny person or object which is deemed to cause bad luck; a jinx.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Jonah in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a jinx:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | porte-malheur |
| German | Unglücksbringer, Unglücksbringerin, Unglücksrabe, Unglücksräbin, Pechvogel, Pechvögelin |
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 Jonah come from?
From the Hebrew יוֹנָה (yônâh, “dove”). Doublet of Jonas.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).