jet lag

See also: jetlag and jet-lag

English

Alternative forms

• jetlag

Etymology

Possibly coined by Horace Sutton in 1966.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

jet lag (usually uncountable, plural jet lags)

1. (aviation, medicine) A physical condition caused by crossing time zones during flight; often the result of disruption to the circadian rhythms of the body.

   Synonyms: jet syndrome, circadian dysrhythmia (medicine), desynchronosis (medicine), time-zone disease, time-zone fatigue

   • 2003, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (Bigend cycle; book 1), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 1:

     She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien’s theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic.

Derived terms

• jet-lagged
• jet-lagger
• jet-lagging
• jetlaggy
• social jet lag

Translations

physical condition

• Afrikaans: vlugvoosheid
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 時差問題 / 时差问题 (shíchā wèntí), 飛行時差反應 / 飞行时差反应 (fēixíng shíchā fǎnyìng), 時差感 / 时差感 (shíchāgǎn), 倒時差 / 倒时差 (dǎo shíchā)

• Czech: pásmová nemoc f
• Danish: jetlag n
• Dutch: jetlag (nl) m
• Finnish: aikaerorasitus (fi), aikaero (fi)
• French: décalage horaire (fr) m
• German: Jetlag (de) m
• Greek: βιοαπορρύθμιση f (vioaporrýthmisi)
• Hebrew: יַעֶפֶת (he), ג׳ט לג
• Hungarian: időeltolódás miatti kimerültség, időátállási probléma, időzónaugrás szindróma
• Icelandic: dægurvilla f, flugþreyta f, þotuþreyta f
• Irish: tuirse aerthaistil f
• Italian: jet lag m, mal di fuso m, fusopatia f (uncommon)
• Japanese: 時差ぼけ (ja) (じさぼけ, jisa boke)
• Korean: 시차증(時差症) (sichajeung)
• Malay: lamban jet, gangguan ritma harian
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jetlag (no)

  Nynorsk: jetlag

• Polish: jet lag (pl) m, jetlag m
• Portuguese: jet lag (pt) m
• Russian: джетла́г (ru) m (džetlág), десинхрони́я f (desinxroníja)
• Slovak: pásmová choroba f
• Spanish: trastorno por desfase horario m, jet lag m
• Swedish: jetlag (sv) c
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: lludded jet m, jetludded m

Italian

Alternative forms

• jet-lag

Etymology

Borrowed from English jet lag.

Noun

jet lag m (invariable)

1. jet lag
   • 2007, Di Thomas Kohnstamm, Venezuela, →ISBN:

     Per evitare il jet lag bevete molti liquidi (non alcolici) e mangiate cibi leggeri.

     In order to avoid jet lag, drink lots of (non-alcoholic) liquid and eat lightly.

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English jet lag.

Noun

jet lag m (uncountable)

1. jet lag (a physical condition caused by crossing time zones during flight)

Further reading

• “jet lag”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English jet lag.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈʝet ˌlaɡ/ [ˈɟ͡ʝet̪ ˌlaɣ̞]

• IPA^(key): /ˈʝet ˌlaɡ/ [ˈɟ͡ʝet̪ ˌlaɣ̞] (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /ˈʃet ˌlaɡ/ [ˈʃet̪ ˌlaɣ̞] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˈʒet ˌlaɡ/ [ˈʒet̪ ˌlaɣ̞] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

 

• IPA^(key): /ˌʝet ˈlaɡ/ [ˌɟ͡ʝet̪ ˈlaɣ̞]

• IPA^(key): /ˌʝet ˈlaɡ/ [ˌɟ͡ʝet̪ ˈlaɣ̞] (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /ˌʃet ˈlaɡ/ [ˌʃet̪ ˈlaɣ̞] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˌʒet ˈlaɡ/ [ˌʒet̪ ˈlaɣ̞] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

• Syllabification: jet lag

Noun

jet lag m (uncountable)

1. jet lag

Usage notes

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “jet lag”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025