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PlainSpell

journal

jour·nal/ˈd͡ʒɝnəl/noun, verb

journal is spelled J-O-U-R-N-A-L, 2 syllables: jour·nal. The wrong spelling people search most is jurnal: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 90 of all searches for the word. Journal is a noun meaning “A diary or daily record of a person, organization, vessel etc.; daybook”. The plural of journal is journals or journaux.

How many letters and syllables are in journal?

Letters7: J-O-U-R-N-A-L
Syllables2: jour·nal
In writing59 times per million words; the 1,758th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, jurnal, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them)
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell journal?

Journal is spelled J-O-U-R-N-A-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 80 of the searches for journal in either form.

journalthe right spelling14,300 searches a month
jurnala missing o160 searches a month
jorunalu and r swapped20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is journal?

Journal appears 59 times per million words in written English, the 1,758th 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 journal?

  • US /ˈd͡ʒɝnəl/
  • UK /ˈd͡ʒɜːnəl/

Journal has 2 syllables, split jour·nal in writing.

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

Words people confuse with journal

Also written: journaling.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with journal?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as journal from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹnəl/):

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 journal

  • journals plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • journaling US, participle, present
  • journalling UK, participle, present
  • journaled US, participle, past
  • journalled UK, participle, past
  • journaux plural

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

What does journal mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A diary or daily record of a person, organization, vessel etc.; daybook.

  2. 2

    A newspaper or magazine dealing with a particular subject.

    The university's biology department subscribes to half a dozen academic journals.

  3. 3

    A chronological record of payments or receipts.

  4. 4

    A general journal.

  5. 5

    A chronological record of changes made to a database or other system; along with a backup or image copy that allows recovery after a failure or reinstatement to a previous time; a log.

  6. 6

    The amount of land that can be worked in a day.

  7. 7

    the part of a rotating shaft or axle that rests on the bearing

verb

  1. 1

    To archive or record something.

  2. 2

    To scrapbook.

  3. 3

    To insert (a shaft, an axle, etc.) into a journal bearing.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteDaily.

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

How do you abbreviate journal?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of journal: jnl, jour..

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

Journal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjournal (diary or daily record), revue (newspaper or magazine), historique, registre (computing: chronological record of changes)
GermanTagebuch, Logbuch, Protokoll, Memorial (diary or daily record), Zeitschrift, Journal (newspaper or magazine)
Portuguesediário, registro, registo (diary or daily record), periódico (newspaper or magazine), munhão (engineering: part of a shaft or axle that rests…)
Spanishbitácora, libreta (diary or daily record), gorrón, muñón (engineering: part of a shaft or axle that rests…)

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 journal come from?

From Middle English journal, from Anglo-Norman jurnal (“daily”), from Old French jornel (“day”) (whence modern French journal), from Latin diurnālis, from diurnus (“of the day”). Doublet of diurnal and the journal from French.

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

What to look up after journal