journalese
/ˌd͡ʒɝ.nəˈliz/noun
journalese is a noun meaning “A style of writing used in some newspapers and magazines, characterized by cliché, hyperbolic language, use of some vocabulary items that are mostly…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled J-O-U-R-N-A-L-E-S-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 79 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of journalese is journaleses.
What does journalese mean?
noun
- 1
A style of writing used in some newspapers and magazines, characterized by cliché, hyperbolic language, use of some vocabulary items that are mostly confined to this genre, and clipped syntax.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce journalese?
- UK /ˌd͡ʒɜː.nəˈliːz/
- US /ˌd͡ʒɝ.nəˈliz/
Journalese has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-journalese.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of journalese
- journaleses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is journalese?
Journalese appears about once in every 79 million words in written English, the 282,993rd 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).
Journalese in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense style of writing used in some newspapers and magazines:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Zeitungsstil, Jargon der Journalisten |
| Portuguese | jornalês |
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 journalese come from?
From journal + -ese.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).