jour vs Jove, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“jour” is a noun and “Jove” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,330
“jour” frequency rank: #49,439
“Jove” frequency rank: 78769
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	jour	Jove
Definition	Abbreviation of journeyman, e.g. jour printer.	Jupiter, god of the sky.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

jour

4 ch

Jove

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: jour is /ˈd͡ʒɝ/ while Jove is /d͡ʒəʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jour is recorded at frequency rank #29,330, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɝ/. Jove is at rank #49,439, tagged as aname, pronounced /d͡ʒəʊv/.

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 78769, this pair ranks #23,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of jour vs Jove

Shared letters: jo. Private to "jour": ru. Private to "Jove": ev.

"jour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "Jove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

jour ← jjour · joru · jourr · juor · ojur
Jove ← jjove · joev · jovve · jvoe · ojve

Frequency comparison

jour#29,330

Jove#49,439

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "jour" is a noun and "Jove" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

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

"jour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,330 in our English list, against #49,439 for "Jove". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering jour vs Jove

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “jour”; for a name, it's “Jove”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “jour” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable