jobsvsjossWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,122
“jobs” frequency rank
#25,813
“joss” frequency rank
26935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jobs joss
Definition plural of job A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.

Where the eye mixes jobs and joss

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
jobs
4 ch
joss

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. jobs (/d͡ʒɑbz/) 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 a single letter - b in “jobs” becomes s in “joss”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jobs is recorded at frequency rank #1,122, classified as anoun, pronounced /d͡ʒɑbz/. 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 26935, this pair ranks #382,918 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jobs vs joss

Shared letters: jos. Private to "jobs": b. Private to "joss": -.

"jobs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "joss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jobsjbos · jjobs · jobbs · jobss · josb · ojbs
  • jossjjoss · jos · jsos · ojss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "jobs" and "joss" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/d͡ʒɑbz/ versus /dʒɒs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jobs" or "joss"?
"jobs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,122 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