What is the answer to the crossword clue "jargon"?

There is more than one. 10 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Four squares is CANT and five is ARGOT, LINGO or SLANG. CANT is the one worth trying first at four, and note it is a different word from the cant meaning hypocrisy, though both come from the same root.

How many letters is the answer to "jargon"?

Anything from 4 to 12. The length with the most candidates is 5. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.

How reliable are these answers?

7 of the 10 appear in two independently compiled reference works, WordNet and Moby Thesaurus, rather than one. All of them are in the 173,000-word dictionary this site searches. None of them comes from any published puzzle.

Crossword clue

Jargon crossword clue

10 words in our dictionary can answer the crossword clue "jargon", from 4 letters up to 12, grouped below by the length of your slot.

Written by Blake Boege

Answers by length

6 different lengths answer this one. Yours is whichever row matches the squares in the grid.

Letters	Answers
4	cantconfirmed by two sources
5	argotconfirmed by two sources lingoconfirmed by two sources slangconfirmed by two sources
6	patoisconfirmed by two sources
7	jargoon
10	vernacularconfirmed by two sources
12	gobbledygookconfirmed by two sources psychobabble technobabble

What this list looks like

If your slot is 5 wide you have the most to choose from, with 3 candidates.

The short ones are worth learning: CANT at 4 letters, which is where a setter goes when the grid is tight.

7 of these mean the same as the clue and 3 are kinds of it, which is a distinction worth holding on to when two look equally good.

Which one does the setter mean?

Four squares is CANT and five is ARGOT, LINGO or SLANG. CANT is the one worth trying first at four, and note it is a different word from the cant meaning hypocrisy, though both come from the same root.

How these differ

These are all specialised vocabularies and differ by who uses them and why. JARGON proper is the technical vocabulary of a trade, neutral among practitioners and impenetrable outside. ARGOT and CANT are the private vocabularies of a closed group, historically thieves, and are meant to exclude. SLANG is informal usage generally and belongs to no particular trade. LINGO is dismissive of any of the above. PATOIS is a regional dialect rather than an occupational vocabulary. GOBBLEDYGOOK, PSYCHOBABBLE and TECHNOBABBLE are jargon used badly, and all three are accusations.

Still stuck? Filter by the letters you have

Got a crossing letter? The word finder searches the same dictionary as this page, with a box for the first letter, the last, and anything in between.

Where these answers come from

No puzzle was consulted to build this page. Every word above is recorded by WordNet as meaning “jargon” or as naming a kind of it, and each one is in the 173,000-wordlist this site searches. Moby Thesaurus lists 7 of them too. We hold no newspaper's answer key and reproduce no published crossword.

Common questions

What is the answer to the crossword clue "jargon"?: There is more than one. 10 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Four squares is CANT and five is ARGOT, LINGO or SLANG. CANT is the one worth trying first at four, and note it is a different word from the cant meaning hypocrisy, though both come from the same root.
How many letters is the answer to "jargon"?: Anything from 4 to 12. The length with the most candidates is 5. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.
How reliable are these answers?: 7 of the 10 appear in two independently compiled reference works, WordNet and Moby Thesaurus, rather than one. All of them are in the 173,000-word dictionary this site searches. None of them comes from any published puzzle.