junk
/d͡ʒʌŋk/
"junk" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“junk” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,800 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,800
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
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 | junk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒʌŋk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,800 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “junk” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for junk is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /d͡ʒʌŋk/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,800 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for junk, with forms such as "jjunk", "jnuk", and "jukn". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "jus", "just", "jury", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often… The correct English form is junk, spelled J-U-N-K.
Definition
- 1Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
- 2Material or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack commercial value.
- 3Nonsense; gibberish.
- 4Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
- 5The genitalia, especially of a male.
- 6Salt beef.
- 7Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.
- 8A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
Etymology
From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to Middle English junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from Old French jonc, from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jjunk,jnuk,jukn,junkk,junnk,ujnk
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of junk - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “junk”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-U-N-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /d͡ʒʌŋk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “jus” - see the side-by-side comparison. junk vs jus
- 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.