Which to use
“jade” and “jais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,403
- “jade” frequency rank
- #46,247
- “jais” frequency rank
- 58650
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | jade | jais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre dure et translucide d’une couleur verdâtre ou olivâtre, parfois blanche. | Bois fossile, assez dur pour être taillé; il s'agit spécifiquement d'une sorte de houille, le lignite piciforme, dont on peut faire de petits ouvrages, colliers, bracelets, boutons de deuil, etc. |
Where the eye mixes jade and jais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. jade (CVCV) and jais (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses jade with jais
A purely visual mix-up. jade (\ʒad\) and jais (\ʒɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
jade is recorded at frequency rank #12,403, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒad\. jais is at rank #46,247, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒɛ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 58650, this pair ranks #107,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of jade vs jais
Shared letters: aj. Private to "jade": de. Private to "jais": is.
"jade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "jais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "jade" and "jais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "jade" or "jais"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "jade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "jade" and "jais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jais vs jama". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #107,775 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.