joual
\ʒwal\
The verdict
“joual” is uncommon French (frequency #77,638 among 47,938 “J” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,638
- frequency rank, French
- 47,938
- “J” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sociolecte de langue française issu de la culture populaire de la région de Montréal dans les années 1960.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | joual |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʒwal\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #77,638 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “joual” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
joual is uncommon French at frequency #77,638 among 47,938 “J” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʒwal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
joual doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is joual, spelled J-O-U-A-L.
Definition
- 1Sociolecte de langue française issu de la culture populaire de la région de Montréal dans les années 1960.
- 2Français québécois.
- 3Prononciation familière de cheval.
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 “joual”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is J-O-U-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʒwal\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.