Josef
The verdict
“Josef” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #31,101 in French word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #31,101
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Prénom masculin.
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 | Josef |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #31,101 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Josef” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for Josef is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #31,101 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Prénom masculin.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Josef, with forms such as "jjosef", "joesf", and "joseff". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "joue", "josh", "Joss", 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 Josef, spelled J-O-S-E-F.
Definition
- 1Prénom masculin.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: jjosef,joesf,joseff,josfe,jossef,jsoef,ojsef
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Josef - 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
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Using “Josef”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is J-O-S-E-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “joue” - see the side-by-side comparison. Josef vs joue
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.