judge
/d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/
"judge" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“judge” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,193 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,193
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
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 | judge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,193 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “judge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for judge is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,193 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for judge, with forms such as "jduge", "jjudge", and "juddge". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "jug", "June", "Judy", 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 Middle English juge, jugge, from Old French juge, from Latin iūdex. Displaced native Middle English deme (from Old English dēma (“judge”)) and demere (from Old English dēmere (“judge”)), see also deemer, deemster. The correct English form is judge, spelled J-U-D-G-E.
Definition
- 1A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
- 2A person who decides the fate of someone or something that has been called into question.
- 3A person officiating at a sports event, a contest, or similar; referee.
- 4A person who evaluates something or forms an opinion.
- 5A shophet, a temporary leader appointed in times of crisis in ancient Israel.
Etymology
From Middle English juge, jugge, from Old French juge, from Latin iūdex. Displaced native Middle English deme (from Old English dēma (“judge”)) and demere (from Old English dēmere (“judge”)), see also deemer, deemster.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jduge,jjudge,juddge,judeg,judgge,jugde,ujdge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of judge - 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 “judge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-U-D-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jug” - see the side-by-side comparison. judge vs jug
- 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.