jobvsjossWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#296
“job” frequency rank
#25,813
“joss” frequency rank
26109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature job joss
Definition A task. A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.

Where the eye mixes job and joss

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
job
4 ch
joss

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. job (/dʒɒb/) and joss (/dʒɒs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

job is recorded at frequency rank #296, classified as anoun, pronounced /dʒɒb/. joss is at rank #25,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʒɒs/.

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 26109, this pair ranks #389,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of job vs joss

Shared letters: jo. Private to "job": b. Private to "joss": s.

"job" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "joss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jossjjoss · jos · jsos · ojss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "job" and "joss" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dʒɒb/ versus /dʒɒs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "job" or "joss"?
"job" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #296 in our English list, against #25,813 for "joss". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list