Which to use
“join” and “joy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,380
- “join” frequency rank
- #15,919
- “joy” frequency rank
- 54299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | join | joy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Joint, interconnexion. | Joie, allégresse. |
Where the eye mixes join and joy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between join and joy
A purely visual mix-up. join (\d͡ʒɔɪn\) and joy (\ˈdʒɔɪ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
join is recorded at frequency rank #38,380, classified as anoun, pronounced \d͡ʒɔɪn\. joy is at rank #15,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʒɔɪ\.
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 54299, this pair ranks #134,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of join vs joy
Shared letters: jo. Private to "join": in. Private to "joy": y.
"join" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "joy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- join ← jion · jjoin · joinn · joni · ojin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "join" for "joy" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "join" or "joy" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "join" and "joy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "join" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "joy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #134,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "join" and "joy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "join vs jor". 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 #134,962 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.