Which to use
“joke” and “joue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,742
- “joke” frequency rank
- #689
- “joue” frequency rank
- 18431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joke | joue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Blague, farce. | Partie du visage de l’humain qui est au-dessous des tempes et des yeux, et qui s’étend de chaque côté du nez jusqu’au menton dont la peau ferme latéralement la bouche. |
Where the eye mixes joke and joue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between joke and joue
A purely visual mix-up. joke (\dʒok\) and joue (\ʒu\) 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 a single letter - k in “joke” becomes u in “joue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joke is recorded at frequency rank #17,742, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʒok\. joue is at rank #689, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʒu\.
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 18431, this pair ranks #378,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of joke vs joue
Shared letters: ejo. Private to "joke": k. Private to "joue": u.
"joke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "joue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "joke" and "joue" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "joke" or "joue"?
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 "joke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "joue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joke" and "joue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joke 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 #378,356 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.