jiu vs jour, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“jiu” and “jour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,852
“jiu” frequency rank: #29,330
“jour” frequency rank: 60182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	jiu	jour
Definition	Any Chinese alcoholic beverage	Abbreviation of journeyman, e.g. jour printer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set jiu and jour apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

jiu

4 ch

jour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

jiu and jour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jiu is recorded at frequency rank #30,852, classified as anoun. jour is at rank #29,330, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɝ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 60182, this pair ranks #101,722 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of jiu vs jour

Shared letters: ju. Private to "jiu": i. Private to "jour": or.

"jiu" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "jour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

jour ← jjour · joru · jourr · juor · ojur

Frequency comparison

jiu#30,852

jour#29,330

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jiu" and "jour" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "jiu" or "jour"?

"jour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,330 in our English list, against #30,852 for "jiu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering jiu vs jour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “jiu” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable