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PlainSpell

jump

/d͡ʒʌmp/verb, noun

jump is spelled J-U-M-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, jump means “To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in jump?

Letters4: J-U-M-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing49 times per million words; the 2,072nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is jump?

Jump appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd 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 jump?

  • /d͡ʒʌmp/
  • /d͡ʒʊmp/

Jump has one syllable (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)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-jump.wav, En-us-jump.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of jump

  • jumps present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • jumping participle, present
  • jumped participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • more jump comparative
  • most jump superlative

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

What does jump mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne.

    The boy jumped over a fence.

  2. 2

    To cause oneself to leave an elevated location and fall downward.

    She is going to jump from the diving board.

  3. 3

    To pass by means of a spring or leap; to overleap.

    to jump a stream

  4. 4

    To employ a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location.

  5. 5

    To jerk the body involuntarily in response to a sudden or unexpected stimulus.

    That balloon popping made me jump.

  6. 6

    To drop sharply downward at the sound of a bowstring release or the fire of a gun.

    The deer jumped the string, so the archer missed his target.

  7. 7

    To increase sharply, to rise, to shoot up.

    Share prices jumped by 10% after the company announced record profits.

  8. 8

    To employ a move in certain board games where one game piece is moved from one legal position to another passing over the position of another piece.

    The player's knight jumped the opponent's bishop.

noun

  1. 1

    The act of jumping; a leap; a spring; a bound.

  2. 2

    An effort; an attempt; a venture.

  3. 3

    A dislocation in a stratum; a fault.

  4. 4

    An abrupt interruption of level in a piece of brickwork or masonry.

  5. 5

    An instance of propelling oneself upwards.

    The boy took a skip and a jump down the lane.

  6. 6

    An object which causes one to jump; a ramp.

    The skier flew off the jump and landed perfectly.

  7. 7

    An instance of causing oneself to fall from an elevated location.

    There were a couple of jumps from the bridge.

  8. 8

    An instance of employing a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location.

    She was terrified before the jump, but was thrilled to be skydiving.

  9. 9

    A kind of loose jacket for men.

adverb

  1. 1

    obsoleteExactly; precisely

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteExact; matched; fitting; precise.

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

Jump in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsauter (propel oneself rapidly upward such that…), sursauter (react to a sudden stimulus by jerking the body…), doubler (move to a position in (a queue/line) that is…), saut (instance of propelling oneself into the air –…)
Germanspringen, hüpfen (propel oneself rapidly upward such that…), zucken (react to a sudden stimulus by jerking the body…), Sprung (instance of propelling oneself into the air –…)
Portuguesesaltar, pular (propel oneself rapidly upward such that…), salto, pulo (instance of propelling oneself into the air –…)
Spanishsaltar, brincar, saltimbanquear, corcovear (propel oneself rapidly upward such that…), salto (instance of propelling oneself into the air –…), lanzarse (cause oneself to leave an elevated location and…)

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 jump come from?

From Middle English jumpen (“to walk quickly, run, jump”), probably of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *gumpōną ~ *gumbōną (“to hop, skip, bounce”), an iterative verb. The OED suggests an imitative origin. Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely.

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

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