Word.ws English Dictionary

jane

/d͡ʒeɪn/

jane noun: a silver Genovese coin, first used in England in the 14th century. Also the alternative letter-case form of Jane.

Noun (1)

jane (plural janes)

  1. (obsolete) A silver Genovese coin, first used in England in the 14th century.
    • 14th c, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Rime of Sire Thopas, The Canterbury Tales, 1793, A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, Volume 1, page 124,
      His robe was of chekelatoun, / That coste many a jane.
    • Certes was but a common Courtisane, / Yet flat refusd to haue a do with mee, / Because I could not giue her many a Iane.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun (2)

jane (plural janes)

  1. A female client of a prostitute.
    • The Swedish system, seemingly, does not target “janes” (female clients of sex workers).2014 March 4, Justin Ling, “Opposition parties shy away from sex-work debate”, in Xtra

Proper noun capitalized: Jane

Jane (plural Janes)

  1. A female given name from French, the standard feminine form of John since the 17th century.
    • In latter years some of the better and nicer sort, misliking Joan, have mollified the name of Joan into Jane, as it may seem, for that Jane is never found in old Records; and as some will, never before the time of King Henry the eight.1605, William Camden, Remains Concerning Britain, John Russell Smith, published 1870, pages 103–104
    • People will please their fancies, and every lady has favourite names. I myself have several, and they are mostly short and simple. Jane, that queenly name! Jane Seymour, Jane Grey, 'the noble Jane de Montford;' - - -1830, Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Fourth Series: Cottage Names
  2. A surname originating as a patronymic derived from a Middle English variant of John.

Noun (3) capitalized: Jane

Jane (plural Janes)

  1. (colloquial) used as a placeholder name for any woman, especially a young working-class woman
  2. (slang) A girlfriend.
    • What happened to your regular Jane?
  3. Alternative letter-case form of jane (“female client of a prostitute”).

Also used as

jane is also the alternative letter-case form of Jane.

jane is also the alternative spelling of jean.

jane meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

jane in Hindi

जेन

jane in Tamil

ஜேன்

jane in Marathi

जेन, जेन्

jane in Bengali

জেন, জেইন
More languagesFewer languages
jane in Telugu
జేన్, జెన్
jane in Malayalam
ജെയ്ൻ
jane in Kannada
ಜೇನ್, ಜೆನ್
jane in Punjabi
ਜੇਨ
jane in Gujarati
જેન, જેન્
jane in Odia
ଜେନ୍, ଜେନ
jane in Nepali
जेन, जेन्

Examples of jane in a sentence

  • Jane sleeps in the top bunk, and her little sister Lauren takes the bottom bunk.
  • Jane looked forward to collecting a large super payout when she retired.
  • Jane has this illusion that John is in love with her.

All 40 example sentences with jane

Forms of jane

Noun
pluraljanes
pluralJanes
alternative formjane
Proper noun
pluralJanes
alternative formJayne
alternative formJaine

Plural of jane: janes

Origin of jane

From Old French Jannes (“Genoa”).

Alternative forms.

Variant of Jeanne, from French Jeanne, from Middle French Jehanne, from Medieval Latin Johanna, variant of Latin Ioanna under influence from Latin Iōhannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack and earlier use of Joan in the same role. Doublet of Gianna, Ivana, Jana, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.

Words formed from jane

Phrases with jane

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with jane

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jane

What does jane mean?
Jane means a silver Genovese coin, first used in England in the 14th century.
What is jane in Hindi?
Jane in Hindi is जेन. See Jane meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is jane?
Jane can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce jane?
Jane is pronounced /d͡ʒeɪn/.
What is the plural of jane?
The plural of jane is janes.

Words near jane in the dictionary

  1. jandayas
  2. janded
  3. janders
  4. Jandreau
  5. Jandreaus
  6. jane
  7. Jane 50
  8. Jane 50s
  9. Jane Austenesque
  10. Jane Average
  11. Jane Averages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jane (page history and authors); Jane (page history and authors); jane (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jane (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-Jane.wav.

Cite this entry: “jane.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jane. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.