joss
/dʒɒs/
"joss" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“joss” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,813 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,813
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
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 | joss |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dʒɒs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #25,813 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “joss” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for joss is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dʒɒs/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,813 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for joss, with forms such as "jjoss", "jos", and "jsos". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "joy", "jus", "jot", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”). The correct English form is joss, spelled J-O-S-S.
Definition
- 1A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
- 2A heathen divinity.
- 3Luck.
Etymology
From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jjoss,jos,jsos,ojss
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of joss - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “joss”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is J-O-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dʒɒs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “joy” - see the side-by-side comparison. joss vs joy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.