traffic jam
"traffic-jam" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“traffic jam” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A situation in which road traffic accumulates until it is stationary or very slow.
Corpus desk
Index EN-traffic-jam · traffic jam · English
traffic jam · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | traffic jam |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “traffic jam” in English
Rare enough to double-check
traffic jam is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A situation in which road traffic accumulates until it is stationary or very slow.".
traffic jam doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is traffic jam, spelled T-R-A-F-F-I-C- -J-A-M.
Definition
- 1A situation in which road traffic accumulates until it is stationary or very slow.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how traffic jam appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Victorian Londoners did not speak of 'traffic jams' - that term came from America after the First World War. They spoke rather of traffic 'locks' or 'blocks', and their prevalence would be one reason why Pearson began to direct his thoughts underground.
Driving in London next week ? Then watch out for the big traffic-jam spots – the places where you may well face a wait if you cannot go another way.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.