jo
/d͡ʒoː/
"jo" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“jo” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,799) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #6,799
- frequency rank, English
- 796
- “J” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Darling, sweetheart.
Corpus desk
Index EN-jo · jo · English
jo · rank #6,799 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,799
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 796
- PHOTO-FINISH insist
Nearest frequency peer: insist (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “jo”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- identifying
identifying
93,205 corpus weight
- insist
insist
93,203 corpus weight
- jo
jo
93,202 corpus weight
- junk
junk
93,201 corpus weight
- Kenny
Kenny
93,200 corpus weight
- kidney
kidney
93,199 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “jo” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | jo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /d͡ʒoː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #6,799 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “jo”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for jo is neighbouring look-alikes ("Jr", "Ju", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /d͡ʒoː/. Frequency #6,799 among 796 “J” headwords. Gloss: "Darling, sweetheart.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for jo, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Jr", "Ju", "JV", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Scots jo (“joy”), from Middle English joye, from Old French joie, from Late Latin gaudia, neuter plural (mistaken as feminine singular) of Latin gaudium (“joy”), from gaudēre (“to be glad, rejoice”). Doublet of joy and gaudy (“Oxford college reunion”). The correct English form is jo, spelled J-O.
Definition
- 1Darling, sweetheart.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how jo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On Old long syne my Jo, on Old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect, on Old long syne.
Keek into the draw-well, Janet, Janet; There ye'll see your bonnie sel', My jo, Janet.
Etymology
From Scots jo (“joy”), from Middle English joye, from Old French joie, from Late Latin gaudia, neuter plural (mistaken as feminine singular) of Latin gaudium (“joy”), from gaudēre (“to be glad, rejoice”). Doublet of joy and gaudy (“Oxford college reunion”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.