João
\ʒo.ɑ̃\
The verdict
“João” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #41,851) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #41,851
- frequency rank, French
- 957
- “J” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Prénom masculin portugais.
Corpus desk
Index FR-joao · João · French
João · rank #41,851 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #41,851
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 957
- PHOTO-FINISH jonc
Nearest frequency peer: jonc (-1 rank slots)
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.
Voisins de fréquence du confusable « João »
Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous
- isola
isola
58,155 corpus weight
- jacents
jacents
58,152 corpus weight
- jonc
jonc
58,151 corpus weight
- João
João
58,150 corpus weight
- Kemp
Kemp
58,147 corpus weight
- knights
knights
58,146 corpus weight
What this shows Les barres placent « João » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.
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 | João |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \ʒo.ɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #41,851 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rang de corpus près des confusables de « João »
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for João is neighbouring look-alikes ("job", "Joe", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun pronounced \ʒo.ɑ̃\. Frequency #41,851 among 957 “J” headwords. Gloss: "Prénom masculin portugais.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for João, with forms such as "jjoão", "jooã", and "jãoo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "job", "Joe", "jon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is João, spelled J-O-Ã-O.
Definition
- 1Prénom masculin portugais.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how João appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Et, à l’arrivée, ils se sont fait punir au retour des vestiaires en concédant un péno, transformé par João Mario (1-1, 62ᵉ).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- jjoão
- jooã
- jãoo
- ojão
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of João - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "João"?
What does "João" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "João"?
How do you pronounce "João"?
What language does "João" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "João", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).