jowl
/d͡ʒaʊl/
"jowl" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jowl” is uncommon English (frequency #87,426 among 4,872 “J” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,426
- frequency rank, English
- 4,872
- “J” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jowl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒaʊl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #87,426 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “jowl” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
jowl is uncommon English at frequency #87,426 among 4,872 “J” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /d͡ʒaʊl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for jowl, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English jawle, chawl, chavel (“jaw, jawbone”), from Old English ċeafl (“jaw, cheek”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl (“jaw, cheek”). The modern form (for expected chavel, chawl; still found dialectally) is influenced by jaw, which it is a partia… The correct English form is jowl, spelled J-O-W-L.
Definition
- 1The jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.
Etymology
From Middle English jawle, chawl, chavel (“jaw, jawbone”), from Old English ċeafl (“jaw, cheek”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl (“jaw, cheek”). The modern form (for expected chavel, chawl; still found dialectally) is influenced by jaw, which it is a partial doublet of.
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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Using “jowl”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-O-W-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒaʊl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.