joust
/d͡ʒaʊst/
"joust" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“joust” is uncommon English (frequency #54,873 among 796 “J” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,873
- frequency rank, English
- 796
- “J” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tilting match: a mock combat between two mounted knights or men-at-arms using lances in the lists or enclosed field.
Corpus desk
Index EN-joust · joust · English
joust · rank #54,873 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,873
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 796
- PHOTO-FINISH Jourdan
Nearest frequency peer: Jourdan (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “joust”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- jitter
jitter
45,131 corpus weight
- Jourdan
Jourdan
45,129 corpus weight
- joust
joust
45,128 corpus weight
- jy
jy
45,126 corpus weight
- Kapil
Kapil
45,124 corpus weight
- Kasparov
Kasparov
45,122 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “joust” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | joust |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒaʊst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #54,873 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “joust” in English
Rare enough to double-check
joust is uncommon English at frequency #54,873 among 796 “J” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /d͡ʒaʊst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A tilting match: a mock combat between two mounted knights or men-at-arms using lances in the lists or enclosed field.".
Zero misspellings are on record for joust in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English, borrowed from Old French jouster (modern French jouter), from Vulgar Latin *juxtō, *iuxtō, *iuxtāre, from Latin iūxta (“close to”). English since the early 14th century. The correct English form is joust, spelled J-O-U-S-T.
Definition
- 1A tilting match: a mock combat between two mounted knights or men-at-arms using lances in the lists or enclosed field.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how joust appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
medieval joust
Etymology
From Middle English, borrowed from Old French jouster (modern French jouter), from Vulgar Latin *juxtō, *iuxtō, *iuxtāre, from Latin iūxta (“close to”). English since the early 14th century.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "joust", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).