jay
/ˈd͡ʒeɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.38 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of the numerous species of birds belonging to several genera within the family Corvidae, including Garrulus, Cyanocitta, Aphelocoma, Perisoreus, Cyanocorax, Gymnorhinus, Cyanolyca, Ptilostomus, and Calocitta, allied to the crows, but smaller, more graceful in form, often handsomely coloured, usually having a crest, and often noisy.
noun
Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium.
noun
The name of the Latin script letter J/j.
Example Sentences
- "They are the commonality of birddom, who furnish forth the mobs which bewilder the drunken-flighted jay when he jerks, shrieking in a series of blue hyphen-flashes through the air […]"
- "Burlington Bertie's the latest young jay He rents a swell flat somewhere Kensington way He spends the good oof that his pater has made Along with the Brandy and Soda Brigade."
- "Some jay of Italy, / Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him:"
- "Although sympathetic, my main reaction was to think: “Some people can handle it, and some people can’t,” and then smugly light up a big fat jay."
- "“I started to think about it. He’s coming in on a two-seater experimental plane to pitch me to go on a five-seater experimental sub that he has built down to the ocean floor to see the Titanic,” Jay said."
- "When Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft jumped into the state’s gubernatorial race last year, the Republican vowed to tackle a slew of culture war issues, promising to fight the “woke politics” of “left-wing” banks and touting how he used his position to enact a regulation targeting those financial firms."
Etymology
From Middle English jay, from Old French jai ("jay"; Modern French geai), either from Late Latin gaius (“jay”), or from Old French gai (“gay, merry”), so named due to its plumage, from Old Frankish *gāhi (“quick, impetuous”), from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”), cognate with Dutch gaai (“jay”). More at gay.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
azure jay
blue-fronted jay
blue jay
California jay
Canada jay
Eurasian jay
Florida jay
Florida scrub jay