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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

jackal.

Any of certain wild canids of the genera Lupulella and Canis, native to the tropical Old World and smaller than a wolf.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈd͡ʒækəl/
  1. Any of certain wild canids of the genera Lupulella and Canis, native to the tropical Old World and smaller than a wolf.

  2. A person who performs menial or routine tasks; a dogsbody.

  3. A person who behaves in an opportunistic way; especially, a base collaborator.

    derogatory · figuratively
  4. A person who behaves in an opportunistic way; especially, a base collaborator. A player who steals the ball at the tackle.

    derogatory · figuratively
  5. A jack (the playing card).

    rare · slang
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French chacal, chacale, checale, schakal, ciacale, from Turkish çakal, from Ottoman Turkish چقال (çakâl), from Classical Persian شغال (šaġāl), borrowed from Sanskrit शृगाल (śṛgāla, “jackal”), the alternative form of सृगाल (sṛgāla).

verb/ˈd͡ʒækəl/
  1. To perform menial or routine tasks

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French chacal, chacale, checale, schakal, ciacale, from Turkish çakal, from Ottoman Turkish چقال (çakâl), from Classical Persian شغال (šaġāl), borrowed from Sanskrit शृगाल (śṛgāla, “jackal”), the alternative form of सृगाल (sṛgāla).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.