juvenile
/ˈd͡ʒuːvənaɪl/
"juvenile" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“juvenile” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,562 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #8,562
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Young; not fully developed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | juvenile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒuːvənaɪl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #8,562 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “juvenile” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for juvenile is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒuːvənaɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,562 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for juvenile, with forms such as "jjuvenile", "juevnile", and "juveinle". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful; juvenile”), from iuvenis (“young; a youth”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Iuvenis is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”), from *h₂óyu … The correct English form is juvenile, spelled J-U-V-E-N-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Young; not fully developed.
- 2Characteristic of youth or immaturity; childish.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful; juvenile”), from iuvenis (“young; a youth”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Iuvenis is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”), from *h₂óyu (“long life; lifetime”) (from *h₂ey- (“age; life”)) + *h₁én (“in”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jjuvenile,juevnile,juveinle,juveniel,juvenille,juvenlie,juvennile,juvneile,juvvenile,jvuenile,ujvenile
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of juvenile - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "juvenile"?
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Using “juvenile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-U-V-E-N-I-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒuːvənaɪl/ (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
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.