jinx
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A person believed to bring bad luck to those around him.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
jingksIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʒɪŋks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person believed to bring bad luck to those around him
“After three straight losses, teammates jokingly called their newest player a jinx.”
A person or thing supposed to bring bad luck.
A hex; an evil spell.
verb
transitive
To bring bad luck to.
Cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something
transitive
To cause something to happen by mentioning it, usually sarcastically.
Word at a Glance
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person believed to bring bad luck to those around him
Used this way, jinx is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“After three straight losses, teammates jokingly called their newest player a jinx.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Noisy and mischievous merrymaking.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: person believed to bring bad luck to those around him
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.