jones
/d͡ʒoʊnz/noun, verb
jones is spelled J-O-N-E-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Jones, the name). As a noun, jones means “An addiction or intense craving” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of jones is joneses.
How many letters and syllables are in jones?
| Letters | 5: J-O-N-E-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 54 times per million words; the 1,899th 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 jones?
Jones appears 54 times per million words in written English, the 1,899th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Jones, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce jones?
- US /d͡ʒoʊnz/
Jones 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-us-jones.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with jones?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as jones from its last stressed vowel (/oʊnz/):
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 jones
- joneses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- jonesing participle, present
- jonesed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does jones mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USarchaicslangHeroin.
You mean you got a little Jones, huh? Was it good?
- 2
USslangAn addiction or intense craving.
I’ve got a basketball jones!
verb
- 1
USslangTo have an intense craving for something.
I’m jonesing for some basketball.
- 2
USslangTo binge on cocaine or alcohol.
- 3
third-person singular simple present indicative of jone
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Jones in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 jones come from?
Ed Boland, in an article in March 2002 of the The New York Times, attributes the term to heroin addicts who frequented Great Jones Alley in New York City, off Great Jones Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street, although the slang term has obviously been around much longer. Dan Waldorf states that the use of the term, in the sense of addiction, originated among heroin addicts.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).