lockjaw
"lockjaw" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lockjaw” is uncommon English (frequency #70,839 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,839
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A spasmodic, nervous system disease brought on by the tetanus bacteria, causing muscles to seize up and may cause death by suffocation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lockjaw · lockjaw · English
lockjaw · rank #70,839 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,839
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH loll
Nearest frequency peer: loll (+2 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “lockjaw”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- linoleic
linoleic
29,168 corpus weight
- Lippman
Lippman
29,166 corpus weight
- Lisi
Lisi
29,165 corpus weight
- lockjaw
lockjaw
29,162 corpus weight
- loll
loll
29,160 corpus weight
- lorazepam
lorazepam
29,156 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “lockjaw” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lockjaw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #70,839 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lockjaw” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lockjaw is uncommon English at frequency #70,839 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A spasmodic, nervous system disease brought on by the tetanus bacteria, causing muscles to seize up and may cause death by suffocation.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for lockjaw, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From lock + jaw. The correct English form is lockjaw, spelled L-O-C-K-J-A-W.
Definition
- 1A spasmodic, nervous system disease brought on by the tetanus bacteria, causing muscles to seize up and may cause death by suffocation.
Etymology
From lock + jaw.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lockjaw", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).