Josiah
/d͡ʒoʊˈzaɪə/
"josiah" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Josiah” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,804 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #24,804
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A king of Judah.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Josiah |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒoʊˈzaɪə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #24,804 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Josiah” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Josiah is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒoʊˈzaɪə/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,804 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for Josiah, with forms such as "jjosiah", "joisah", and "josaih". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "jovial", "Josh", "Jonah", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Biblical Hebrew יֹאשִׁיָּה (yōšiyyā), יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ (yōšiyyā́hū). The correct English form is Josiah, spelled J-O-S-I-A-H.
Definition
- 1A king of Judah.
- 2A male given name from Hebrew.
Etymology
From Biblical Hebrew יֹאשִׁיָּה (yōšiyyā), יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ (yōšiyyā́hū).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jjosiah,joisah,josaih,josiahh,josiha,jossiah,jsoiah,ojsiah
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Josiah - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Josiah”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-O-S-I-A-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒoʊˈzaɪə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jovial” - see the side-by-side comparison. Josiah vs jovial
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.