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Jo or joe?

jo is a noun meaning “Darling, sweetheart”; joe is a noun meaning “A male; a guy; a fellow”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) joe is about 5.6 times as common as jo.

joorjoe

What is the difference between jo and joe?

jojoe
Part of speechnounnoun
Meaning

ScotlandDarling, sweetheart

The staff used in the Japanese martial art of jodo or jojutsu

A job order employee

informalA male; a guy; a fellow

Synonym of johannes (“An old Portuguese gold coin bearing a figure of John V of Portugal.”)

USinformalCoffee

ExampleOn Old long syne my Jo, on Old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syneI'm just an ordinary Joe
Formsjos (Darling, sweetheart)
jōs (An approximately 1.28 m (4.18 foot)…)		joes
Pronunciation/d͡ʒoː//d͡ʒəʊ/ /d͡ʒoʊ/
In writing11 times per million words60 times per million words

Sources: jo and joe in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of jo and joe

jo

  1. 1

    noun ScotlandDarling, sweetheart

    On Old long syne my Jo, on Old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syne

  2. 2

    noun The staff used in the Japanese martial art of jodo or jojutsu

  3. 3

    noun slangInitialism of jerk off

  4. 4

    noun An approximately 1.28 m (4.18 foot) long wooden staff, used in some Japanese martial arts

  5. 5

    noun Initialism of job order

  6. 6

    noun A job order employee

  7. 7

    noun Initialism of job offer

  8. 8

    noun Abbreviation of jail officer

joe

  1. 1

    noun informalA male; a guy; a fellow

    I'm just an ordinary Joe

  2. 2

    noun informalA male; a guy; a fellow

    I'm just an ordinary joe

  3. 3

    noun USinformalCoffee

  4. 4

    noun ScotlandAlternative form of jo (“a darling or sweetheart”)

  5. 5

    noun UKslangA spy, especially a double agent

  6. 6

    noun Synonym of johannes (“An old Portuguese gold coin bearing a figure of John V of Portugal.”)

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, jo or joe?

jo appears 11 times per million words; joe 60 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How many people search jo vs joe?

“jo vs joe” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“joe vs jo”, “jo or joe”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.

The words